Maurice de Vlaminck

MAURICE DE VLAMINCK (Paris, 1876- Rueil-la-Gadelière,1958).
"Field of poppies in Rueil-la-Gadelière", ca. 1925.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Provenance: private collection.
Measurements: 46.5 x 55.5 cm; 66 x 75 cm (frame).

This oil painting, faithful exponent of the vigorous plastic language of Maurice de Vlaminck in the decade of 1920, locates its genesis in Rueil-la-Gadelière, enclave in which the artist settled in 1925. The property, known as "La Tourillière" - and today preserved as the Maison Vlaminck - was his creative refuge until his death in 1958. In "Poppy Field in Rueil-la-Gadelière", the author masterfully captures the dynamism of the flora under the scourge of the wind, projecting a rural atmosphere dominated by leaden skies of great dramatic charge. The ductility of the brushstroke is subjected to the arbitrariness of the gust, allowing the architecture and vegetation to mimic the environment through the elongation of their shadows.

Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter and one of the fundamental figures of Fauvism; practically self-taught, he was introduced to painting thanks to his close friendship with André Derain, begun in 1890 and maintained throughout his life, with whom he shared a studio in Chatou from 1900; his first major public appearance took place at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where, together with Matisse, Derain, Dufy, Marquet, Camoin and others, he provoked a scandal that gave rise to the term "les fauves" ("the wild beasts"), a movement characterized by the radical and expressive use of color; in 1907 Cézanne's retrospective made a deep impression on him that influenced the subsequent structuring of his painting; during the First World War he lived in Rouen, a period in which he began to write poetry, an activity that was added to his literary facet - he had published two novels in 1902 and 1903, illustrated by Derain; After the war he traveled extensively in France, although most of his work was done around the Seine, and during the Second World War he focused mainly on landscapes and still lifes, always maintaining a visceral, independent and deeply emotional conception of painting.

Maurice de Vlaminck's work is in the collections of some of the world's most important museums, including the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, as well as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C., the Tate Modern in London and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, confirming its historical relevance within Fauvism and modern European painting.