| ANDRE' DERAIN (Chatou 1880 - Garches 1954) SEATED NUDE WOMAN Pen and brown ink, c. 1935; 200 x 310 mm. PROVENANCE: stamped with the 'ATELIER Andre' DERAIN' stamp. LITERATURE: 'Soutine Kisling Utrillo e la Parigi di Montparnasse', exhibition catalogue, Farsettiarte, Florence, 2003; no. 25, illustrated. Andre' Derain was a leading figure of the Fauve movement in France. Derain had first planned to become an engineer before deciding to study art at the Académie Julian. He shared a studio with his friend Vlaminck, painted with Matisse, and was a frequent visitor to the studios on the rue Ravignan, known as the Bateau Lavoir, where his friends Braque and Picasso worked. As a Fauve Derain was principally concerned with line and color and enjoyed squeezing tubes of bright color on his canvas. In and around 1908, Derain turned to the study of form and structure, and experimented with Cubism, Impressionism, and the styles of van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cezanne, in an effort to find a style that pleased him. An early interest in the Renaissance masters led him to a further study of paintings of the past and he went as far back as the Italian primitives and the Gothic masters. During his years of study he worked as a wood-engraver and illustrated many famous books. He also executed a great many sets and costumes for the Ballet Russe. In the later years of his career, after 1920, he painted brilliant still lives, classical landscapes, and some of the finest portraits of his day. |
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