pencil and watercolour on paper: 19,5 x 14 cm
signed ‘van Dongen.’ (lower centre)
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Notes:
Kees van Dongen was a Dutch-born French painter and printmaker who was one of the leading Fauvists and was particularly renowned for his stylized, sensuously rendered portraits of women.
This watercolour is a study for a lithograph that was published in Roland Dorgelès, ‘Au beaux-temps de la Butte’, Paris 1949: A book illustrated by Kees van Dongen about the life in Montmartre.
Although now considered a suburb of Paris, Chatou was then a small village situated to the west, along the Seine. Opposite it lies the Île de Chatou, a long, narrow stretch of land in the center of the river. The scene shown here shows the artists Maurice de Vlaminck and Andre Derin working together en-plein-air. Vlaminck shared a studio with Derain in 1900. Together, they formed what has been called the “School of Chatou,” and their painting style—characterized by bright colors and bold brushstrokes—was a harbinger of Fauvism.
In reviewing the 1905 Salon d’Automne, an alternative exhibition to the official Salon, one critic likened the work of Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Matisse, and André Derain to that of wild beasts (fauves in French). Although not intended as a criticism, others used the name to attack this new direction in avant-garde art. The Fauves were not a formally unified group, but their style was nevertheless distinct, characterized by their use of vibrant, unmixed paint and rough, spontaneous brushwork. It is therefore fitting that Kees van Dongen, who would also become known as one of the leading fauvists, would memorialize these pioneers of the style.
Provenance
Literature