Maurice Vlaminck 1876 - 1958

A French painter and self taught artist Maurice Vlaminck (1876-1958) was one of the great Fauves, artists who stressed the primacy of pure colour. In his later work he moved toward a kind of expressive realism. As a member of the Fauvist movement, which flourished from 1905 to 1908, he worked with Derain at Chatou. In spite of a strong personal hostility to contemporary experiments, he paradoxically played a major role in the development of new artistic techniques.

The son of a Flemish father and a French mother from Lorraine, Maurice Vlaminck was born in Paris on April 4, 1876, and grew up in the suburb of Le Vésinet. Both his parents were musicians, and at the age of 16 Vlaminck moved to Chatou near Paris and earned his living as a violinist and a bicycle racer. In 1894 he married and started a large family. He learned to draw from J. L. Robichon, a French artist, and at Chatou he worked with Henri Rigal.

As an adolescent, Vlaminck planned to make a career as a professional cyclist. Like his parents, he also had musical talent and earned a living through the violin. Vlaminck had a passionate interest in painting which was fostered by Robichon, as well as his drawing.

He married Suzanne Berly in 1894, but contracted typhoid fever which ended his racing career in 1896. Obliged to support his family, he gave violin lessons and eventually joined the military. It was during one of his military leaves at Chatou when he met Andre Derain in June 1900, which was the meeting that began the school of Chatou and ultimately the birth of Fauve art.

Vlaminck painted with the Fauves and exhibited with them at the Salon des Independants and d'Automne. He also published a few novels for which Derain made illustrations and even wrote some poetry. Vlaminck remarried and had two daughters. He continued to travel with Derain during the later years of his life and published dozens of autobiographical accounts of his life and his experiences with other artists.

Vlaminck was one of the most colourful personalities among French artists. A person of great vitality, he was self-willed, radical, and independent. Very Flemish in temperament, he admired folk art, naive imagery, and African sculpture and was against all schools and academies.

By 1899, Vlaminck & Derain shared a studio. In the ensuing years, he met and was influenced by Henri Matisse, began a collection of African masks, and became friendly with Pablo Picasso. Vlaminck adopted Vincent Van Gogh's bright colour, and began painting with open brushstrokes, so loose that he eventually began applying paint directly onto the canvas from the tube. This early body of work epitomizes the Fauve revolution.

By 1908, Vlaminck grew dissatisfied with the formlessness of his early style. He turned his attention to the work of Paul Cézanne and adopted a darker palette, painting many landscapes rendered in a personal expressionist style. Later, by 1920, he turned to a more realistic yet still vigorous style. His late work is predominantly still lifes and landscapes, colourful but often brooding in spirit.

Vlaminck's early woodcuts reveal the influence of Gauguin and Van Gogh, who were similarly important to his contemporaries. Vlaminck's style also embraced a Fauvist and a Cezanne-like period before his personality took shape, free of all influence.

In 1911, Vlaminck headed for London to paint the banks of the Thames. In his English pictures his new style was confirmed. In composition and colour it is as far removed from the geometrical structure of the preceding period as it is from the dazzling harmonies of his Fauve period. Working within the framework of this conception of landscape, which combined an undeniable force of expression and a fairly mature interpretation of Nature, Vlaminck revealed himself immediately as a master. Vlaminck's nature, character, tastes and way of life were in perfect harmony with the freedom and daring of his painting.

Vlamincks ‘Glacière Road’ etching is a fine example of his artistic style. The work is exemplary of Vlaminck’s later style of work – more realistic yet still retaining vigour. The line work in ‘Glacière Road’ is loose in form, yet make up a compositionally strong Parisian street scene. Typical of Vlamincks ‘en plein air’ style, the work portrays the transient elements of a Parisian street scene; one can almost hear the noise of the carriage as it rattles away down the street, and feel the breeze moving the clouds over the street. The work has a movement about it which the fauves tended to capture using colour, and loose forms. So we are granted the impression of movement and light here, though through the skill of Vlaminck’s use of line. The preliminary sketches for this etching would have been created outside, before the artist took to the studio to etch the scene.