André Derain

Ambroise Vollard, Paris
Robert de Galéa, Paris
Private Collection, France

 

Marseilles, Musée Cantini, Quelque chose de plus que la couleur: le dessin fauve 1900-1908, 2002, no. 219, illustrated in the catalogue  

Suzanne Pagé & Françoise Marquet, André Derain: le peintre du 'trouble moderne' (exhibition catalogue), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1995, no. 193, illustrated in colour p. 294

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, loose in the mount. There are several minor support losses with associated infill and small repaired tears along all four edges. Apart from some slight time staining to the sheet and very minor surface dirt, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: The paper tone is much warmer and the blues and greens are stronger and richer in the original.
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La Danse was created at the genesis of the Fauve movement, in the months surrounding the historic Salon d'Automne of 1905. Although Matisse's Luxe, calme et volupté had attracted much of the critical attention, the present work illustrates how Derain had already begun to move away from Divisionism, which undermined the importance of drawing; as Derain commented around this time, pointillist techniques created 'a world that destroys itself when one pushes it to the absolute' (Letter to Vlaminck, 28^th July 1905). This development was in tandem with Matisse, whose work Bonheur de vivre, which was presented in 1906 at the Salon des Indepéndents, shows his reaction against Divisionism in favour of drawing. The present work, characterised by the dynamic treatment of figures and the interplay between a strong emphasis on line and vibrant, Fauvist colours, is clearly related to another work of the same period, Danse bachique now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and shows the artist injecting a kinetic quality to his compositions.

Whilst Matisse's work was undoubtedly the principal influence on Derain during this period, there was a marked difference between the older artist and his protégé in terms of their choice of subject matter; 'Whereas Matisse had selected his subject from a relatively modern poet, Baudelaire. Derain turned to classical antiquity, to Ovid's Metamorphoses – that vast treasure house of iconology that had appealed to Raphael, Titian, and Rubens as well as to many others, and, in doing so, he reverted to a tradition which, quite recently in France, had been followed by Bonnard, Maurice Denis and  K. X. Roussel' (Denys Sutton, André Derain, London, 1959, p.15). The literary bent of Derain's choice of subjects may reflect his association with neo-Symbolist circles, through an acquaintance with Guillaume Apollinaire. This culminated in two monumental allegorical paintings, L'Age d'or (Museum of Modern Art, Tehran) and La danse (Fridart Foundation, London).