Maurice de Vlaminck

Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris
Collection Cohen, Neuilly-sur-Seine (acquired by 1986)
Galerie Schmit, Paris
Acquired from the above on October 24, 1986

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Maitres Français XIXe-XXe siècles, 1986, no. 62, illustrated in the catalogue
Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Impressionist and Modern Masters in Dallas, Monet to Mondrian, 1989, no. 114, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Francis Carco, Maurice de Vlaminck (Les Peintres français nouveaux, no. 7), Paris, 1920, illustrated pl. 35 (titled Vue de Saint-Germain and dated 1912)
Florent Fels, Vlaminck, l'art et la vie, Paris, 1928, p. 60 (titled L'Hermitage au Pecq and dated 1908)
Marcel Sauvage, Vlaminck, sa vie et son message, Geneva, 1956, no. 132, illustrated p. 132 (titled Saint-Germain)

This work is in excellent condition. The canvas is unlined. The surface is very slightly dirty in places. Under UV light: two pin dot retouches fluoresce in the sky toward upper left corner, otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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No longer satisfied by the flat planes and pure colors of his Fauve style, and wishing not to be “limited by the blue or red of a paint dealer,” Vlaminck turned to the Northwest suburbs of his native Paris for inspiration (Marcil Giry, Fauvism, Origins and Development, New York, 1982, p. 219). The Cézanne retrospective at the Salon d'Automne in 1907 proved to have a strong impact as Vlaminck entered this transitional period; the painter was clearly overwhelmed by the intensity of Cézanne's brushwork and attention to light (see fig. 1). Indeed, much like Cézanne’s fascination with Provence, Vlaminck drew constant inspiration from the suburban landscape and towns grouped along the Seine as it flowed out of the capital. "You cannot come into profound contact with things by looking at a landscape through the door of an automobile like a tourist, or by spending your vacations in a corner of the countryside. You don't flirt with nature, you possess it" (quoted in James Herbert, Fauve Painting: The Making of Cultural Politics, New Haven, 1992, p. 53).

Painted in 1913, Saint Michel reveals Vlaminck’s extraordinary ability to convey atmosphere and a sense of place through his highly accomplished and assured painterly language. As discussed by John Klein, "Because Derain and Vlaminck were longtime residents of the region, the motifs that they painted in Chatou and the surrounding area were deeply familiar to them. The sense of being of the place gives their paintings a profoundly different character, at once more intimate and more poignant, than the canvases of Bougival, Chatou, or La Grenouillère by Renoir and Monet, who had been tourists like all the others" (John Klein in The Fauve Landscape (exhibition catalogue), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1990, p. 131).

This work will be included in the forthcoming Maurice de Vlaminck digital database, being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.