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Lot Essay
Le matin, Corse was painted in 1907, at the height of Herbin’s Fauvist period. It belongs to a series of fifteen compositions painted during the artist’s stay in Corsica in the spring of that year. His friend, Wilhelm Uhde, the German art collector, dealer, author and critic, had invited him to visit the island. The glowing sunlight and serene vistas provided the ideal backdrop for Herbin to further his experimentations with form and color. The rich topography was augmented by the inspiring group of people with whom he passed his time. In addition to Uhde, Herbin there became friends with Erich Mühsam, a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright, whose portrait he would paint later that year.
Herbin also exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and in the fifth Salon d’Automne in 1907, alongside André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Georges Braque. The bright palette and frenetic quality of the composition of Le matin, Corse was certainly inspired by scenes painted by his contemporaries in Collioure, Saint Tropez and L’Estaque (fig.1). Herbin’s composition shares the thick impasto, large bands of color and energetic brushwork found in the Fauve works of his contemporaries. Deploying colors straight out of the tube and applying them to the canvas in swift, confident brushstrokes, Herbin depicts the morning light falling upon a cluster of houses in the present work. Linear bands of red, pink and yellow form the houses, while the mountains which tower over the village are represented with vertical strokes of pink, orange, purple and blue. Like Derain, here Herbin creates form through sparse bands of color juxtaposed against one another. The dense foliage surrounding the village, however, utilizes a rich symphony of swirling strokes of color which contrasts the reductive treatment of the houses and mountains. Le matin, Corse provides a compelling insight into the artist’s unique approach to translating light into form, anticipating the bright and abstract landscapes he would go on to produce in the late 1920s.
(fig. 1) André Derain, Bateaux à Collioure, 1905. Sold, Christie’s, London, 9 February 2011, lot 16.
Herbin also exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and in the fifth Salon d’Automne in 1907, alongside André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Georges Braque. The bright palette and frenetic quality of the composition of Le matin, Corse was certainly inspired by scenes painted by his contemporaries in Collioure, Saint Tropez and L’Estaque (fig.1). Herbin’s composition shares the thick impasto, large bands of color and energetic brushwork found in the Fauve works of his contemporaries. Deploying colors straight out of the tube and applying them to the canvas in swift, confident brushstrokes, Herbin depicts the morning light falling upon a cluster of houses in the present work. Linear bands of red, pink and yellow form the houses, while the mountains which tower over the village are represented with vertical strokes of pink, orange, purple and blue. Like Derain, here Herbin creates form through sparse bands of color juxtaposed against one another. The dense foliage surrounding the village, however, utilizes a rich symphony of swirling strokes of color which contrasts the reductive treatment of the houses and mountains. Le matin, Corse provides a compelling insight into the artist’s unique approach to translating light into form, anticipating the bright and abstract landscapes he would go on to produce in the late 1920s.
(fig. 1) André Derain, Bateaux à Collioure, 1905. Sold, Christie’s, London, 9 February 2011, lot 16.