PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
Lot 20
MAURICE DE VLAMINCK(1876-1958)Voiliers à Chatou
Amended
6 December 2022, 14:00 EST
New YorkUS$400,000 - US$600,000
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Preeya Franklin
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Flannery Gallagher
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Emily Wilson
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MAURICE DE VLAMINCK (1876-1958)
Voiliers à Chatou
signed 'Vlaminck' (lower left)
oil on canvas
21 5/8 x 25 5/8 in (54.9 x 65.1 cm)
Painted circa 1908
signed 'Vlaminck' (lower left)
oil on canvas
21 5/8 x 25 5/8 in (54.9 x 65.1 cm)
Painted circa 1908
Footnotes
This work will be included in the forthcoming Maurice de Vlaminck Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Provenance
Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Paris.
Private collection, Paris (acquired from the above in 1951); their sale, Osenat, Paris, June 14, 2009, lot 2.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Exhibited
(possibly) Paris, Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Vlaminck 1909-1914, 1951.
The present work depicts the Parisian suburb of Chatou, Maurice de Vlaminck's home for most of his childhood. It had everything the aspiring landscape painter could wish for in terms of views - river, bridge, boats and not too many people. Indeed, the vibrant river vista was first popularized by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and while Chatou was still a sought-after suburb, it was no longer the thriving tourist center it had once been. The more pleasurable river activities had passed, as had the canotiers, in favor of teeming commercial river traffic.
Vlaminck was born to a French mother and Flemish father in 1876 in Paris. He was enraptured with color from a young age and although he enrolled in some drawing classes, he was largely self-taught and proudly rejected the system of the academy. His artistic career launched at the age of 23, after a chance encounter with the painter André Derain, who became his lifelong friend. The pair, who had been accustomed to seeing each other wandering around Chatou with their paints, eventually met on a train around 1900. Each had a great influence on the other: Vlaminck's raw, unharnessed treatment of his subject matter – the legacy of his lack of any formal artistic schooling – released in Derain the courage to truly explore the potentials of color. Derain in turn introduced structure and technique to Vlaminck.
Vlaminck's confidence truly developed when he began painting full-time, and Ambroise Vollard, the ever-perceptive dealer, bought 300 paintings, Vlaminck's entire output, in one day. Even more important had been the favorable reaction by master colorist Henri Matisse upon seeing his works. The pair had met briefly before, but in 1905 Derain reintroduced them. Matisse saw Vlaminck's paintings and was amazed by the power of his works and his striking colors, later recalling the occasion as an epiphany. Matisse encouraged Vlaminck in his art and arranged for him to exhibit alongside himself and his colleagues. All this brought not only relative prosperity, but more importantly great confidence in his art, vindicating him in his chosen method of self-expression.
Voiliers à Chatou perfectly encapsulates the Fauvist elements that Vlaminck cultivated: short, choppy brushstrokes, which emphasized coloristic dynamism and his exploration of the expressive nature of color. Vincent van Gogh's application of paint, expressive use of color, and his psychological exploration of his sitters were indelibly influential to Vlaminck. He experimented with technique, applying unmixed paint in daubs directly from the tube onto the canvas, and ventured outside of the conventions of realistic representation in favor of the liberation of color, a step in modern art advancing toward abstraction.
Vlaminck's works are included in the permanent collections of major museums and galleries around the world including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Saleroom notices
Please note the last line of provenance should read as follows: 'Private collection, Paris (acquired from the above in 1951); their sale, Osenat, Paris, June 14, 2009, lot 2. Acquired from the above sale by the present owner.'