Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876 to 1958)
Maurice de Vlaminck was a primarily self-taught artist, writer, and musician best known as a key player in the Fauvist movement. He began his artistic career alongside Henri Matisse and his lifelong friend Andre Derain, all of whom exhibited in the Salon des Independants and the Salon d’Automne in 1905. It was at the Salon d’Automne that critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term “Fauves” to describe these artists as wild beasts due to their use of intense, vibrant color and powerful brushwork in these avant-garde paintings. During his early career, Vlaminck was strongly influenced by Vincent Van Gogh, whose work he had seen in a 1901 exhibition. His work was collected by noted dealer Ambrose Vollard, who arranged a one-man exhibition for Vlaminck in 1906. However, once Vlaminck attended a Cezanne retrospective in 1907 he began using a somewhat darker palette as opposed to pure color taken straight from tubes of paint he had used heretofor. His forms from 1908 onward were more solidly constructed, though he still employed painterly brushstrokes.
After his service in WWI Vlaminck had a breakthrough exhibition of 1919, after which he bought a house in the countryside at Valmondois. His style developed and he began painting rural landscapes, continuing to do so after a second move to the Department Eure-et-Loire in 1925.
Information courtesy of New Orleans Auction December, 2011.