André Derain

Ambroise Vollard, Paris

Bing Collection

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above in March 1957)

Mr & Mrs Charles W. Engelhard, Jr., New Jersey (acquired from the above in December 1966)

Estate of Mrs Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. (until 2004)

Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Les Fauves, 1959, no. 12, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Derain Before 1915, 1961-62

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Franse landschappen van Cézanne tot heden, 1963, no. 33, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Recklinghausen, Kunsthalle, Torso: das Unvollendete als künstleriche Form, 1964, no. 269, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Tokyo, Takashimaya; Osaka, Takashimaya & Fukuoka, Iwataya, Les Fauves, 1965, no. 14, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Autour de l'Impressionnisme, 1966, no. 15, illustated in colour in the catalogue

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy & London, The Royal Academy, Derain, 1967, no. 12, illustrated in the catalogue

Georges Hilaire, Derain, Geneva, 1959, no. 38, illustrated in colour (with inverted dimensions)

Nina Kalitina, André Derain, Leningrad, 1976, illustrated p. 125

Michel Kellermann, André Derain. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Paris, 1992, vol. I, no. 60, illustrated p. 36

Nina Kalitina et al., André Derain. Le peintre à l'épreuve du feu, Bournemouth, 1995, illustrated p. 65

Matisse-Derain: Collioure 1905, un été fauve (exhibition catalogue), Musée Départemental d'Art Moderne, Céret & Musée Départemental Matisse, Cateau, 2005-06, no. 22, illustrated in colour p. 93

The canvas is unlined. Apart from some scattered spots of old retouching in the left white sail and the right sale, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: In comparison to the printed catalogue illustration, the colours are overall slightly stronger in the original, particularly the blue and green tones. The whites have a slightly more cream tonality in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Completed during the summer of 1905 at Collioure, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, the present work is one of Derain’s most accomplished Fauvist landscapes. The exact location of the view has been identified as the Port d’Avall, with the slopes of the surrounding hills visible in the distance (fig. 1). Matisse had invited Derain to the small coastal town in early July and they spent the following two months working in close proximity, often painting the same subject (fig. 2). The sun-drenched atmosphere so typical of southern France had a profound effect on Derain and, shortly after his arrival, he wrote to Maurice de Vlaminck celebrating the light: 'a blond light, a golden hue that suppresses the shadows'. Derain's preoccupation with the light and colour of the Mediterranean freed his palette, leading him to explore a new, purified form of painting. Writing about Matisse and Derain's depictions of the landscapes in the south of France, James D. Herbert commented: 'This manner of painting, subsequently known as the Fauve style, reached its first fruition - and perhaps its fullest realization - in the paintings Matisse and Derain executed in Collioure in the summer of 1905' (J. D. Herbert, Fauve Painting: The Making of Cultural Politics, New Haven & London, 1992, p. 89).

When Derain arrived in Collioure, Matisse was working in the manner of Paul Signac and Henri Edmond Cross, using dashes of isolated colour in the ‘pointillist’ technique which was pioneered by Georges Seurat in the 1880s. Derain too fell under this influence, but like Matisse, adapted the Neo-Impressionist style to convey a strong sense of emotion within a radiant spectrum of contrasting colours. Derain executed some thirty oil paintings over the two months he spent at Collioure (fig. 3), and they constitute not only a peak in his own body of work, but also the height of the Fauve movement. In September 1905 he returned to Paris, shortly before the opening of the famous Salon d'Automne, where the boldly coloured canvases exhibited by artists including Braque, Matisse, Vlaminck and Derain himself provoked the art critic Louis Vauxcelles to proclaim them the ‘wild beasts’. The similarities in style and subject matter among this group of revolutionary painters are testament to the pace and fervour with which Fauvism evolved.

In the present work Derain has clearly abandoned the technical exactness of Neo-Impressionism in favour of an abstract mosaic of flat patches and short strokes of vibrant colour, whilst the areas of pristine white-primed canvas assume the role of dazzling sunlit patches – a technique he had first introduced in works such as Voiliers à Collioure, and which he uses to masterly effect here. He paints in the wild, hot palette of reds, cobalts, yellows and greens that defined the Fauves, with little or no concern for naturalistic representation. This important development continued to feature in works over a year later, whilst he was working in the coastal town of L'Estaque.

The exquisite paintings which Derain executed during the summer of 1905 are pivotal not only in the history of the Fauve movement, but are also a milestone in the development of twentieth century art. Describing the unique pictorial effect created in Derain's works of this period, Jacqueline Munck has remarked that 'line and stroke seemed to have travelled back in time to rediscover their origins and invent mark, outline and pulsation, the rhythm of life, the natural extension of the eye that draws, a plunge into instinct, impatient graphs, fluid or solid, irrigating the obverse and reverse of the perceptible and the luminous' (J. Munck in André Derain (exhibition catalogue), Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2003, p. 66).