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ART HISTORY 4450 Fauvism
Fauvism (c. 1904-07) •
principal artists: Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Dufy
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definition: “the wild beasts” – pejorative label coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles – anything but an opponent – general tone far from unfavorable; emphasized his close association w/ artists
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demise: Cezanne retrospective 1907 presented at Salon d’Automne changed emphasis to concern w/ form over color
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context: Anarchism – definition: political theory that aims to create a society w/out political, economic or social hierarchies – aim: to oppose government & capitalism – methodology: critiques current society, while at same time offers vision of potential new society – Fauves: • purely artistic radicalism • subject matter does not approach urban & labor issues • color as “sticks of dynamite” (Derain)
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Matisse (1869-1954) •
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training: – student of Redon – closely studied work of Manet and Cezanne • bought a small Cézanne Bathers in 1899 – became interested in Divisionism (c. 1904) • became friends w/ Signac & painted w/ him @ St. Tropez role: leader of Fauves (“The Wild Beasts”) tendency: Romantic tradition aim: expressiveness of color motto: – art as being like “a good armchair” – “Instinct … thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better”
Matisse •
influence of Signac: – subject: pastoral & classical landscapes (c. 1890s) • in decades before 1880, avant-garde painters rarely depicted France’s southern shore – due, in part, to cultural affiliation between southern France and academic classicism – linked w/ cultural and political conservatism • represent anarchist ideal of natural order and harmony that would be found in golden age to come • radicalizes seemingly innocuous depictions – Matisse’s Luxe, calm et volupte (1904-05) • title inspired by Baudelaire’s “L’invitation al Voyage” • dreamy idyll of languorous nudes • far less specified by time, place or politics • “mixed” brushwork & completely arbitrary use of color • condemned as a lifeless theory of painting • more belligerent critics recommended Matisse exile himself to “land of the Bushmen,” where he’d surely be “taken for a master”
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Matisse’s Luxe, calm et volupte (1904-05)
Matisse •
Green Stripe (Madame Matisse) – c. 1905 – brushwork: painterly • rejects finesse of Impressionism • rejects Post-Impressionist dots & dashes • variation of Post-Impressionist patchy, impasto application (e.g., Cezanne) – forms: • outlined w/ thick, dark contours – introduced by PostImpressionism (e.g., Gauguin, van Gogh) • retains naturalistic proportions – color: combination of arbitrary & naturalistic flesh tones – light/shadow: nearly absent – composition: stable
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Matisse • Woman in a Hat (1905) – brushwork: painterly • rejects Post-Impressionist dots & dashes • closer to patchiness of Cezanne – form: • outlined w/ thick, dark contours – introduced by PostImpressionism (e.g., Gauguin, van Gogh) • retains naturalistic proportions – color: vibrant • expressive & arbitrary • does not correspond to reality • intends to shock viewer psychologically • obviates need for light/shadow
Matisse’s (Left) Woman in a Hat (1905) vs. (right) Red Madras Headdress (1907)
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Matisses’s The Joy of Life (c. 1905)
MATISSE’s Fauvist The Joy of Life (1905) vs. TITIAN’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchannal (c. 1525)
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Matisse • La Luxe (1907) – subject: idyllic bathers – theme: ideal of humanity’s harmony w/ natural order – brushwork: patchy, crudely applied – color: naturalistic – forms: abstracted • outlined w/ thick, dark contours • facial features simplified w/ economical use of line • flattened volumes – due to obviated use of light/shadow – composition: dynamic – perspective: linear & aerial
Mattisse’s Harmony in Red (1908)
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Matisse’s The Dance (1909)
Matisse’s The Red Studio (1911)
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Derain (1880-1954) •
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born at Chatou – artists’ colony at the gates of Paris – quiet, picturesque spot spared from industrial activity – father was a successful patissier (pastry chef) and town councillor – middle-class education training: – first lessons in painting in 1895 from old friend of his father’s and of Cézanne’s – Académie Carriere (1898) in Paris, where he met Matisse – June 1900 he met Maurice de Vlaminck, and formed a close friendship with him • rented a disused restaurant in Chatou which they used as a studio • often shocked their neighbors w/ their antics – meanwhile, copying in the Louvre and visiting exhibitions of contemporary art • extremely impressed by Van Gogh retrospective at Bernheim-Jeune Gallery
Derain • 1905: – dealer Ambroise Vollard, to whom he had been introduced by Matisse, bought the entire contents of his studio (he did the same with Vlaminck) – exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants (sold four paintings) – then exhibited at the Salon d'Automne w/ Matisse, Vlaminck and others – following success at the Salon d'Automne, Vollard commissioned views of London; returned in 1906 • 1906: – spent summer painting at L'Estaque (S. FR) – met Picasso; and next year signed a contract w/ Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Picasso's dealer – married on strength of his new financial security – went to live in Montmartre, with his wife, Alice
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Derain •
Mountains at Collioure (1905) – subject: landscape (S. FR) – theme: utopian • painted after his release from military – brushwork: “mixed” • linear strokes van Gogh • Patchy, broad areas Cezanne – forms: built entirely from paint; no outlines or contours – perspective: linear & aerial – composition: planar – color: arbitrary; divorced from reality – light/shadow: obviated
(Left) Derain’s Fauvist Mountains (1905) vs. (right) Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist Mt. Sainte Victoire (1885-95)
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Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge (1906)
(Left) Derain’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1905-06) vs. (right) photographic postcard of River Thames
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(Left) Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906) vs. (right) Monet’s Parliament, Effect of Fog (1904)
Derain’s Turning Road (1906)
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Derain’s Fauvist Turning Road (1906) vs. (right) Monet’s Impressionist The Red Road near Menton (1884)
Derain’s Bathers (1907)
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Vlaminck (1876-1958) •
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biography: – born in Paris to bohemian parents – flamboyant, rough and muscular – unorthodox career path (e.g., professional bicycle racer, gypsy violinist, and pulp novelist) training: largely self-taught – boasted had never been inside Louvre meets Derain during military leave (1900) politics: anarchist sympathizer during prewar period – he would later link strident colorism and bold brushwork to social and political dissent aim: unmediated expression of an artist’s temperament style: – influenced by van Gogh retrospective 1901 – squeezed brilliant colors out of tubes directly onto canvas – broad, loose but loaded, densely accumulated brushwork – absence of shadows
(Left) VLAMINCK’s Fauvist Woman in a Hat (1905) vs. (right) MATISSE’s Fauvist Woman in a Hat (1905)
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Vlaminck’s Picking up Dead Wood (1905)
Vlaminck • Tugboat (1906) – brushwork: painterly • broad, loose • loaded, densely accumulated • differs from Matisse & Derain’s “mixed” application – composition: dynamic • diagonal arrangement • cropped forms • omits strong, vertical foreground elements (e.g., trees, pier of the bridge) – color: vibrant • carries primary coloration of tugboats into the water • political reference to colors of French republican “tricolor”
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DERAIN, Andre. Portrait of Matisse (1906), Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in. MATISSE. Luxe, calm et volupte (1904-05), Oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 46 ½ in., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. MATISSE. Green Stripe (Madame Matisse), 1905, Oil and tempera on canvas, 15 7/8 x 12 7/8 in., Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. MATISSE. Woman with a Hat (1905), Oil on canvas, 32 1/4 x 23 3/4 in., Collection of Mrs. Walter A. Haas, San Francisco. (Left) MATISSE’s Woman with a Hat (1905); and (right) MATISSE’s The Red Madras Headress (Summer 1907), Oil on canvas, 39 1/8 x 31 3/4 in., Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA. MATISSE, Henri. The Joy of Life (1905), Oil on canvas, 69 1/8 x 94 7/8 in., Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA. (Left) MATISSE’s Fauvist The Joy of Life (1905); and (right) TITIAN’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchannal of the Andrians (c. 1520). MATISSE. Le luxe (1907), Oil on canvas, 6’ 10 5/8 x 54 3/8 in., Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
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MATISSE. Harmony in Red (Spring 1908), Oil on canvas, 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in., Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia. MATISSE, Henri. The Dance (early 1909), Oil on canvas, 8‘ 6 1/2" x 12'9 1/2“ in., Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. MATISSE. The Red Studio (1911), Oil on canvas, 71 1/4 x 86 ¼ in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Portrait of Andre Derain at Collioure, (1905), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. DERAIN, Andre. Mountains at Collioure (1905), John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Left) Derain’s Fauvist Mountains (1905) vs. (right) Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist Mt. Sainte Victoire (1885-95). DERAIN, Andre. Charing Cross Bridge (1906), oil on canvas, 31 5/8 x 39 1/2 in., John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Left) Derain’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1905-06) vs. (right) photographic postcard of River Thames.
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IMAGE INDEX •
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Comparison between (left) DERAIN’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906); and MONET’S Impressionist Parliament, Effect of Fog (1904), Oil on canvas, 32 1/2 x 36 1/2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL. DERAIN, Andre. The Turning Road, L'Estaque (1906), Oil on canvas, 4’2 1/2 x 6’ 4 1/2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Comparison between (left) DERAIN’s Fauvist The Turning Road, L'Estaque (1906); and (right) MONET’s Impressionist The Red Road near Menton (1884), Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 32 in., Private collection. DERAIN, Andre. Bathers (1907), oil on canvas, 4’4” x 6’4 ¾”, location unknown. VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Self-Portrait (c. 1905). (Left) VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Woman with a Hat (1905), Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and (right) MATISSE’s Woman with a Hat (1905). VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Picking up Dead Wood (1905), oil on canvas. VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou (1906), Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney.
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