Lot Essay
At the invitation of Wilhelm Uhde, Herbin spent the spring of 1907 on the island of Corsica. During this Mediterranean sojourn, Herbin executed around fifteen canvases of the surrounding landscape, painting the trees and the mountains, the ports and the quais, and the sunny streets of Corsica. With its vibrant colors and vigorous brushwork, the present picture typifies Herbin's Corsica series, inspired by the high-key Fauve scenes which artists like Derain, Matisse and Braque had been painting since 1905 in such Southern cities as Collioure, Saint Tropez, La Ciotat and L'Estaque. Route et montagnes en Corse is a dazzling mosaic of color, "instinctive and decorative...elegant, allusive, paradoxical and sun-drenched," as critic Denys Sutton described the art of the Fauves. (D. Sutton, André Derain, London, 1959, p. 20) Posing a sharp contrast to the relatively sober, restrained scenes of Lille and Paris which Herbin executed in the first few years of the century, the luminous Route et montagnes suggests the unfettered delight which the artist took in the brilliant Southern light of Corsica.