Maurice de Vlaminck
Agitated Sea - 1930s
de Vlaminck is quickly becoming one of my favorite painters. He is not widely regarded or talked about. I can understand why because the majority of his pieces that I have seen are heavily influenced by others.
I think I first became aware of de Vlaminck when I got into the Fauvist movement. I have to say, I dismissed him and I still don’t find anything of interest that he did during this period. I like the idea of the Fauvists and I think a couple of good works came from the movement, but mostly its a bunch of novelty gimmick work in my opinion.
The River Seine at Chatou - 1906
Heavily influenced by Derain and Matisse. De Vlaminck became one of the original Fauvist’s.
I don’t think this is de Vlaminck’s voice yet.
Town on a Lake - 1909
de Vlaminck also was very influenced by Cezanne. Several of his early works look like they could have been painted by Cezanne himself.
I am very drawn to work where it feels like de Vlaminck is attacking his canvases. This painting dated as 1910 ‘Pond at Canes’ has such a moody and frantic feeling to it. All of the brush marks are moving from left to right across the canvas giving the impression of a blur.
You can see how de Vlaminck transitioned from his fascination with Cezanne to painting in this manner. He is taking Cezanne to a next logical step.
Pond at Canes - 1910
I’m sure I am missing a lot of de Vlaminck’s work. I have only just started to look at what he as done. I hope that most of his catalog is not yet online and that there is a lot left to discover.
