Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Van Dongen Digital catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Paysage d'Île de France bears similarity to a series of works Van Dongen painted at Fleury-en Bière during his sojourn to the countryside outside of Paris during the summer of 1905. As Anita Hopmans observes: 'The flat rolling landscape prompted him to paint deep blue skies above a low horizon, on which he set down showy white clouds, giving them their own expression—Van Gogh style—with bold, swirling brushstrokes.' (Exh. cat., All Eyes on Kees van Dongen, Rotterdam, 2010, p. 24). Works from this time explore the artist's natural surroundings, with expansive skies articulated in loaded brushstrokes. Here, the bright blues and yellows of the central void of sky are cut through by vibrant zips of red articulating the trees which reverberate off one another, enlivening the surface.
The composition is arranged on a vertical canvas, an unusual format for a landscape, that enhances the sense of dynamic, upward force, which in conjunction with the vertiginous trees and low lying horizon, lends an almost spiritual or sublime, soaring quality. The three long slender tree trunks coarse through the composition, the power of their verticality recalling the organisation of trees seen in seminal works that led Mondrian into abstraction; whilst the tiny details of the village below pales in comparison to this mighty nature, enhancing the sense of timelessness of the landscape.
Paysage d'Île de France bears similarity to a series of works Van Dongen painted at Fleury-en Bière during his sojourn to the countryside outside of Paris during the summer of 1905. As Anita Hopmans observes: 'The flat rolling landscape prompted him to paint deep blue skies above a low horizon, on which he set down showy white clouds, giving them their own expression—Van Gogh style—with bold, swirling brushstrokes.' (Exh. cat., All Eyes on Kees van Dongen, Rotterdam, 2010, p. 24). Works from this time explore the artist's natural surroundings, with expansive skies articulated in loaded brushstrokes. Here, the bright blues and yellows of the central void of sky are cut through by vibrant zips of red articulating the trees which reverberate off one another, enlivening the surface.
The composition is arranged on a vertical canvas, an unusual format for a landscape, that enhances the sense of dynamic, upward force, which in conjunction with the vertiginous trees and low lying horizon, lends an almost spiritual or sublime, soaring quality. The three long slender tree trunks coarse through the composition, the power of their verticality recalling the organisation of trees seen in seminal works that led Mondrian into abstraction; whilst the tiny details of the village below pales in comparison to this mighty nature, enhancing the sense of timelessness of the landscape.