.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, a quaint village located on the Seine river about 15 kilometers west of Paris. Chatou, which had once inspired paintings by the Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, later became the site of another important collaboration in the history of modern art: between Derain and his contemporary, Maurice de Vlaminck. These two artists, both in their early twenties, worked side by side in the early 1900s, often painting similar views of the Chatou landscape. The present work, Bords de Seine à Chatou, represents the bold formal innovation that resulted from that artistic partnership.
Derain and Vlaminck first met around June 1900. Vlaminck had been born in Paris but left his impoverished family at the age of sixteen in order to pursue a career as a painter. He moved to Chatou, where he encountered Derain, a native son with similar artistic ambitions. Together, the two young men shared a rented studio—in fact, an abandoned restaurant—on the Île de Chatou, a small island on the middle of the Seine River. This humble working space offered Derain and Vlaminck a picturesque view of the village of Chatou, a charming cluster of humble homes, on the opposite bank of the river. Bords de Seine à Chatou likely represents this vantage point, glimpsed between the trunks of two spindly tree trunks.
The intimate friendship and mutual stylistic influence between Derain and Vlaminck was briefly interrupted in September 1901, when Derain enlisted in the French army for his compulsory military service. Derain was occasionally given leave from the army, during which time he often returned to Chatou to be reunited with his paintbrushes and easel. He was ultimately discharged from service in September 1904 and promptly resumed his collaboration with Vlaminck. It was likely during that pivotal winter of 1904 to 1905 that the present work was painted. The following February, both Derain and Vlaminck met the art dealer Ambroise Vollard through their mentor, Henri Matisse; both of their careers would be forever changed thereafter.
Vlaminck later recalled, with a profound sense of nostalgia, the quiet encouragement that he shared with Derain during this period of youthful exploration: "Each of us set up his easel, Derain facing Chatou, with the bridge and steeple in front of him, myself to one side, attracted by the poplars. Naturally I finished first. I walked over to Derain holding my canvas against my legs so that he couldn’t see it. I looked at his picture. Solid, skillful, powerful, already a Derain. ‘What about yours?’ he said. I spun my canvas around. Derain looked at it in silence for a minute, nodded his head, and declared, ‘Very fine.’ That was the starting point of all Fauvism" (quoted in J. Freeman, The Fauve Landscape, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990, p. 15).
Derain’s work from late 1904 certainly anticipates Fauvism, the radical artistic style that would be coined the following year at the Salon d’Automne. Bords de Seine à Chatou is defined by a radical flatness, an unapologetic compression of the three-dimensional landscape onto a two-dimensional surface— likely informed by the cloisonnism of Nabis artists, such as Pierre Bonnard and Paul Sérusier. With this work, Derain also demonstrated his willingness to employ bold, bright colors that deviated from the earthy color palette of nature. Above all, it is his loose, expressive brushwork—in some areas, exposing glimpses of the raw, unprimed canvas underneath—that prefigures the ‘wildness’ of Fauvism.
Derain and Vlaminck first met around June 1900. Vlaminck had been born in Paris but left his impoverished family at the age of sixteen in order to pursue a career as a painter. He moved to Chatou, where he encountered Derain, a native son with similar artistic ambitions. Together, the two young men shared a rented studio—in fact, an abandoned restaurant—on the Île de Chatou, a small island on the middle of the Seine River. This humble working space offered Derain and Vlaminck a picturesque view of the village of Chatou, a charming cluster of humble homes, on the opposite bank of the river. Bords de Seine à Chatou likely represents this vantage point, glimpsed between the trunks of two spindly tree trunks.
The intimate friendship and mutual stylistic influence between Derain and Vlaminck was briefly interrupted in September 1901, when Derain enlisted in the French army for his compulsory military service. Derain was occasionally given leave from the army, during which time he often returned to Chatou to be reunited with his paintbrushes and easel. He was ultimately discharged from service in September 1904 and promptly resumed his collaboration with Vlaminck. It was likely during that pivotal winter of 1904 to 1905 that the present work was painted. The following February, both Derain and Vlaminck met the art dealer Ambroise Vollard through their mentor, Henri Matisse; both of their careers would be forever changed thereafter.
Vlaminck later recalled, with a profound sense of nostalgia, the quiet encouragement that he shared with Derain during this period of youthful exploration: "Each of us set up his easel, Derain facing Chatou, with the bridge and steeple in front of him, myself to one side, attracted by the poplars. Naturally I finished first. I walked over to Derain holding my canvas against my legs so that he couldn’t see it. I looked at his picture. Solid, skillful, powerful, already a Derain. ‘What about yours?’ he said. I spun my canvas around. Derain looked at it in silence for a minute, nodded his head, and declared, ‘Very fine.’ That was the starting point of all Fauvism" (quoted in J. Freeman, The Fauve Landscape, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990, p. 15).
Derain’s work from late 1904 certainly anticipates Fauvism, the radical artistic style that would be coined the following year at the Salon d’Automne. Bords de Seine à Chatou is defined by a radical flatness, an unapologetic compression of the three-dimensional landscape onto a two-dimensional surface— likely informed by the cloisonnism of Nabis artists, such as Pierre Bonnard and Paul Sérusier. With this work, Derain also demonstrated his willingness to employ bold, bright colors that deviated from the earthy color palette of nature. Above all, it is his loose, expressive brushwork—in some areas, exposing glimpses of the raw, unprimed canvas underneath—that prefigures the ‘wildness’ of Fauvism.