Dear Friends,
For this new minute about Maurice de Vlaminck, we are happy to share with you the reflections of Maïthé Vallès-Bled, Chief Curator at the Paul-Valéry Museum in Sète and author of the Catalogue Raisonné de Vlaminck.
Let’s go together to meet Maurice de Vlaminck and a dazzling « Still Life », from around 1908.
Françoise and Florence Chibret-Plaussu
One minute with Maurice de Vlaminck
From 1907, Vlaminck moved away from Fauvism – the limits of which he had defined.
The retrospective dedicated to Cézanne by the Salon d’Automne of the same year opened up a new path for young fauve artists on which they embarked immediately.
Vlaminck then became more rigorous in the sequencing of his painting and abandoned the use of pure color.
In his research on the organization of space, still lifes constituted privileged fields of experimentation.
The shapes are simplified, structured, the volumes are clearly defined by a black contour.
The composition of our oil, from around 1908, is based here on a dynamic of masses: the verticality of the vase and the pitcher contrasting with the flat surface of the fruit platter.
Although the violence of the tones has faded, Vlaminck focused on rendering luminous effects that animate the objects, and managed to create a vibrant contrast between the white of the table and the more muted tones of the composition.
However, it remains faithful to the legibility of the subject, as Cézannienne experimentation did not lead him at any time down the path of cubism or of abstraction.
“Painting is like cooking”.
“You can’t explain it. It must be tasted”.Maurice de Vlaminck
Still life
c.1908
Nature morte
Circa 1908
Oil on canvas
65,5 x 54 cm
Provenance
– Private collection, The Netherlands
– Galerie Noortman, The Netherlands
– Lord Kennet collection, U.K. (1957)
– The Grosvenor Gallery, London
– Burt Lancaster Collection, New York
– Private collection, France
Exhibition
« A selection of paintings by M. de Vlaminck », Crane Kalman Gallery, London, n°2.
Letter of inclusion from the Wildenstein Institute.
Price upon request. Contact us.
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