Vlaminck exceptional "paysage de banlieue"

This painting is among the finest of Maurice de Vlaminck's fauvist landscapes created in 1905, the most renowned and groundbreaking period of his career. Fauvism constituted the inaugural upheaval in the evolution of twentieth-century art, with Vlaminck, whom the poet Guillaume Apollinaire esteemed as "the wildest of the Fauves," being one of its prominent figures alongside Henri Matisse and André Derain. Vlaminck and Derain encountered each other in 1900 when their commuter train from Paris derailed while traveling to Chatou, a suburban hamlet approximately nine miles northwest of the capital where they both resided. In 1901, the two artists opted to cohabitate a studio in Chatou, where Derain acquainted Vlaminck with Matisse during an exhibition of Van Gogh's oeuvre at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. Matisse reminisced about this encounter: "One day, I attended the Van Gogh exhibition at Bernheim's on rue Lafitte." I observed Derain accompanied by a large young man who expressed his enthusiasm with an authoritative tone. He stated, 'You must utilize pure cobalts, pure vermilions, and pure veronese in your painting.' It appears that Derain had a degree of apprehension towards him. However, he esteemed him for his fervor and zeal. He approached me and introduced Vlaminck" (cited in J. Elderfield, The "Wild Beasts": Fauvism and Its Affinities, New York, 1976, p. 30). Vlaminck's initial displayed works appeared in a collective exhibition at Berthe Weill's gallery in Paris in 1904, succeeded by four paintings at the Salon des Indépendants and eight at the Salon d'Automne in 1905. During the most recent show, the critic Louis Vauxcelles, taken aback by the audacious use of unadulterated color in this new work, conferred upon Vlaminck and his contemporaries the scornful epithet Les Fauves ("The Wild Beasts").

Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958)

Paysage de banlieue

oil on canvas

25½ x 32 in. (65 x 81 cm.)

Painted in 1905 SOLD CHRISTIE"S $ 22.5M

During this time, Vlaminck focused predominantly on the western suburbs of Paris, especially in and around Chatou, where this canvas was created. A longtime inhabitant of this area, famously immortalized by the Impressionists in the 1870s and 1880s, Vlaminck derived his most significant creative inspiration from the well-known local scenery. In his advanced years, he reminisced, "I had no desire for a change of scenery." All the locations I was intimately familiar with—the Seine adorned with its array of barges, the tugs emitting their billows of smoke, the taverns in the outskirts, the hue of the ambiance, the sky populated with expansive clouds and sunlit patches—were the subjects I aspired to depict. In 1906, dealer Ambroise Vollard acquired the complete inventory of Vlaminck's workshop, enabling the artist to focus solely on painting for the first time, while he remained in the Paris suburbs. While financial stability allowed his associate Derain to lease a studio in Paris and Matisse to travel to the Midi, Vlaminck had no desire to pursue new subjects. He then elucidated, "One cannot achieve deep engagement with the environment by observing a landscape through the window of a vehicle as a tourist, nor by vacationing in a secluded area of the countryside." "You do not flirt with nature; you possess it" (cited in J. Herbert, Fauve Painting: The Making of Cultural Politics, New Haven, 1992, p. 53).

Chatou is situated on the right bank of the Seine at the onset of the third bend of the river as it exits Paris. It was linked to the capital by the inaugural railway line in the nation, which commenced operations between Paris and Le Pecq in 1837. By the era of the Impressionists, the town had transformed into a favored summer resort and recreational area for tourists from the capital, with the haute bourgeoisie partaking in sailing and canoeing along the forested banks of the Ile de Chatou, a narrow island situated in the Seine. Renoir created notable works here, including Les canotiers à Chatou from 1879 (Daulte, no. 307; Dauberville, no. 217; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) and Le déjeuner des canotiers from 1880 (Daulte, no. 379; Dauberville, no. 224; fig. 1). Vlaminck was acutely cognizant of the artistic heritage of Chatou; for example, Le déjeuner des canotiers had been publicly displayed at the Salon d'Automne in 1904 and functioned as a reference point in several contemporaneous discourses on Renoir. While the Impressionists lauded the town as a vibrant realm of social enjoyment, Vlaminck's artworks are predominantly devoid of figures, imparting a subtle sorrow and a profound harmony with the nature. John Klein stated, "Due to their prolonged residency in the region, the motifs that Derain and Vlaminck depicted in Chatou and its vicinity were profoundly familiar to them." The essence of the locale imparts a distinctly distinctive quality to their paintings, rendering them simultaneously more intimate and more tragic than the works from Bougival, Chatou, or La Grenouillère by Renoir and Monet, who were just visitors like the rest." (exh. cat., op. cit., Los Angeles, 1990, p. 131).

Despite Vlaminck operating inside a recognized contemporary framework by painting in the Paris suburbs, his vibrant palette and vigorous, fragmented brushwork signify a stark departure from tradition, particularly in contrast to the refined approach used by Renoir and his Impressionist peers. The Post-Impressionists serve as a significant precursor to the Fauves' formal developments. Although Derain and Matisse primarily drew inspiration from Gauguin, Vlaminck was more significantly influenced by Van Gogh's thick impasto and unrealistically vivid colors (e.g., fig. 2, a painting by Van Gogh from Auvers-sur-Oise that has a similar composition with the current canvas). Vlaminck subsequently recounted the revelation he encountered during his visit to the Van Gogh show at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in 1901: "In him, I discovered reflections of my own aspirations." Likely derived from analogous Nordic connections? Additionally, there exists a revolutionary zeal accompanied by an almost sacred sentiment for the interpretation of nature. I emerged from this retrospective show profoundly affected. James Herbert remarked, "Vlaminck likely relied on the teachings of Van Gogh more than any other Fauvist prior to 1907 depended on a singular artistic predecessor." The connection was not overlooked by at least one astute critic. In his critique of the 1907 Salon des Indépendants, Vauxcelles stated: 'M. de Vlaminck is a vehement creator of images who incites rage and bewilderment among bourgeois audiences; a unique disposition reminiscent of Van Gogh, but with a lesser emphasis'" (op. cit., p. 27).

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