Maurice de Vlaminck

Exhibited by Eykyn Maclean

Material oil on canvas

Dimensions 54.5 × 65.5 cm

Price Price Upon Inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

In May 1906, Henri Matisse brought the great French art dealer Ambrose Vollard to Vlaminck's studio. In his memoir, Vollard recalled: "The landscapes covering the walls of the studio were so many challenges to the bourgeois, whose idea of nature is of something tame and tidied up. Nevertheless, far from being put off by this 'outrance', I bought everything Vlaminck showed me."

The current work, "Arbres à la maison bleue", was likely painted in the fall of that same year, after Vollard's visit and Vlaminck's monetary windfall. Vlaminck remembered: "Once my means allowed me to buy canvases, I experienced a physical pleasure when applying colors. As I had no obligations attendant on me, nor did I contemplate having to obey any rules, and I had not a care in the world about what others thought of me, I allowed my revolutionary instincts to run free..." (Vlaminck, quoted in M. Vallès, "Vlaminck, Catalogue critique des peintures et céramiques", vol. I, La période fauve, 1900-1907, Paris, 2008, p. 182)

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