Lot Essay
Derain painted the present work at Collioure in the summer of 1905. It was there in the course of the summer that Derain, together with Matisse, broke free from the model of Neo-Impressionism and devised a new aesthetic in painting using saturated and unmodulated pigments. The new style resulted in extremely bold and vivid images such as Bateaux au port de Collioure. Denys Sutton has written about this moment in the history of modern art:
In the spring of that year, Derain joined the Matisses, who were installed in the charming village of Collioure on the west coast of France. They were together then at the crucial moment when Fauvism flowered and when Matisse, having digested the lessons learnt from Cross and Signac, achieved the lyrical, translucent and winning style so typically represented by the Landscape at Collioure (Statens Museum, Copenhagen) and the Open Window (Mrs. John Hay Whitney). He went all out for color--gay, light and decorative--and this was used to translate his sensations into vibrant canvases and to evoke the Bonheur de vivre celebrated in his impressive canvas of 1906. Derain required small incitement to participate in this appreciation of the sunshine and light which made the coast so enchanting... [In his views of Collioure] all is delight; reds, blues, pinks were used to edge in the roof tops or to outline a horse and cart; oblong strokes, dabs with the brush, placed on the canvas rapidly and spontaneously, render the trees and foliage, in a manner reminiscent of Cross and Van Gogh. Yet what ought not to be overlooked is that such pictures formed a logical continuation to an approach already in evidence with the Chatou series. The elements were previously there; and his proximity to Matisse at this juncture did not so much radically change his manner as assist his employment of a heightened color. (D. Sutton, André Derain, London, 1959, pp. 15-17)
At about the time that he made this picture, Derain wrote to Vlaminck to explain something of his ideals as a painter:
1. A new conception of light consisting in this: the negation of shadows. Light here is very strong, shadows very faint. Every shadow is a whole world of clarity and luminosity which contrasts with sunlight: what is known as reflections.
Both of us, so far, have overlooked this, and in the future, where composition is concerned, it will make for a renewal of expression.
2. Noted, when working with Matisse, that I must eradicate everything involved by the division of tones. He goes on, but I've had my fill of it completely and hardly ever use it now. It's logical enough in a luminous, harmonious picture. But it only injures things which owe their expression to deliberate disharmonies. (July 28, 1905; quoted in ibid., p. 16)
It was the exhibition of images like the present picture at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 that inspired Louis Vauxcelles to call Derain, Matisse and their artistic associates "les fauves" (the wild beasts). Vauxcelles wrote pejoratively about Derain:
M. Derain gives one a scare. I believe him to be a poster artist rather than a painter. The parti pris of his virulent imagery, the easy juxtaposition of his complementary colors will seem to some no more than puerile. His paintings of ships, however, would do well as decorations for a nursery. (Quoted in ibid., p. 17)
Later Derain wrote:
Fauvism was our ordeal by fire... Colors became charges of dynamite. They were expected to discharge light. It was a fine idea, in its freshness that everything could be raised about the real. It was serious too. With our flat tones, we even preserved a concern for mass, giving for example to a spot of sand a heaviness it did not possess, in order to bring out the fluidity of the water, the lightness of the sky... The great merit of this method was to free the picture from all imitative and conventional contact. (Quoted in ibid., pp. 20-21)
In the spring of that year, Derain joined the Matisses, who were installed in the charming village of Collioure on the west coast of France. They were together then at the crucial moment when Fauvism flowered and when Matisse, having digested the lessons learnt from Cross and Signac, achieved the lyrical, translucent and winning style so typically represented by the Landscape at Collioure (Statens Museum, Copenhagen) and the Open Window (Mrs. John Hay Whitney). He went all out for color--gay, light and decorative--and this was used to translate his sensations into vibrant canvases and to evoke the Bonheur de vivre celebrated in his impressive canvas of 1906. Derain required small incitement to participate in this appreciation of the sunshine and light which made the coast so enchanting... [In his views of Collioure] all is delight; reds, blues, pinks were used to edge in the roof tops or to outline a horse and cart; oblong strokes, dabs with the brush, placed on the canvas rapidly and spontaneously, render the trees and foliage, in a manner reminiscent of Cross and Van Gogh. Yet what ought not to be overlooked is that such pictures formed a logical continuation to an approach already in evidence with the Chatou series. The elements were previously there; and his proximity to Matisse at this juncture did not so much radically change his manner as assist his employment of a heightened color. (D. Sutton, André Derain, London, 1959, pp. 15-17)
At about the time that he made this picture, Derain wrote to Vlaminck to explain something of his ideals as a painter:
1. A new conception of light consisting in this: the negation of shadows. Light here is very strong, shadows very faint. Every shadow is a whole world of clarity and luminosity which contrasts with sunlight: what is known as reflections.
Both of us, so far, have overlooked this, and in the future, where composition is concerned, it will make for a renewal of expression.
2. Noted, when working with Matisse, that I must eradicate everything involved by the division of tones. He goes on, but I've had my fill of it completely and hardly ever use it now. It's logical enough in a luminous, harmonious picture. But it only injures things which owe their expression to deliberate disharmonies. (July 28, 1905; quoted in ibid., p. 16)
It was the exhibition of images like the present picture at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 that inspired Louis Vauxcelles to call Derain, Matisse and their artistic associates "les fauves" (the wild beasts). Vauxcelles wrote pejoratively about Derain:
M. Derain gives one a scare. I believe him to be a poster artist rather than a painter. The parti pris of his virulent imagery, the easy juxtaposition of his complementary colors will seem to some no more than puerile. His paintings of ships, however, would do well as decorations for a nursery. (Quoted in ibid., p. 17)
Later Derain wrote:
Fauvism was our ordeal by fire... Colors became charges of dynamite. They were expected to discharge light. It was a fine idea, in its freshness that everything could be raised about the real. It was serious too. With our flat tones, we even preserved a concern for mass, giving for example to a spot of sand a heaviness it did not possess, in order to bring out the fluidity of the water, the lightness of the sky... The great merit of this method was to free the picture from all imitative and conventional contact. (Quoted in ibid., pp. 20-21)