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Home , Kees van Dongen, Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy

42 from 1850to1914 Modern The Artists ......

English translation by Susan Schneider the eveof World War Cézanne, Van Dongen wastopersistin hisexperimentations withthe triumphof colouruntil fig.2). WhilehisFauvistfriends soonlooked topastures new following inthe footsteps of Portrait of MadameMatisse the whom he wouldbecome friends. : Picasso’s girlfriend Fernande Olivier often modelled for him Van Dongen rented astudio atthe BateauLavoir(inMontmartre, ) and met Picasso, with who explored the powerof saturated colourstothe height of contrast. The following year, Vauxcelles coined the term“Fauves”(literally “wildbeasts”) to describe agroup of artists presented twopaintings atthe famous Autumn Salonof 1905,during which the critic Louis vivid and sensual free brushwork,inwhich pinkbecomes red and blueturns black.He (1877-1968)embodies thisnew aesthetic, withitscoloursapplied through (1879-1949)and RaoulDufy(1877-1953).The twentieth century –.Several of itsexponents are tobefound inthisroom, including The issueof anew approach tocolourgaveriseanother important movement inthe early tones, asinthe brushwork from Seurat’s without applying Chevreul’s principles, he usedsimilar a name for himself and received many official commissions. Retaining onlythe fragmentary inParis withLaugéinthe classof Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921).He quickly made Martin (1860-1944)of Toulouse studied which he wouldnever relinquish. Henri precocious advocacyof divisionism, Road at“Hort” (1896-98)testifies tohis few kilometres from Carcassonne. His was mainly basedinhisnative region, a Achille Laugé(1861-1944)whose career their ownpersonal touch –among them artists adopted Seurat’s techniqueadding of “simultaneous contrast” (1826).Many by the chemist Eugène Chevreul’s laws small dots of pure colour(fig.1) inspired 1891) devised aform of painting using the Neo-Impressionists togivestructure tothe application of colour. (1859- Monet’s (1840-1926)impetusfrom 1872. of Sisley(1839-1899)orPissarro (1830-1903),yetalate starterwhen compared withClaude This isapparent inMaxime Mauffra’s (1861-1918)1902work being lessconcerned withthe subjectaswithrendering variations inlight and atmosphere. In the latenineteenth century, the Impressionists pavedthe wayfor modernity incolour, to become awriterof repute. personal synthesis of these different influences, asisapparent inhis from , and from divisionism and the influence of the Nabis. He achieved ahighly One of the founders of the movement afterWorld War The spontaneity found inthe inspiration of the Impressionists gavewaytothe desire of Also apupilof Laurens, Georges Ribemont-Dessaigne (1884-1974)quickly turned away Spanish Woman Old House (1906) and the following yearthe portrait inthisroom, similartothe I . the Avant-garde * * in1904. An asteriskindicates thatthe work mentionned isdisplayed inthe room (The Green Line) (1905,Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, Colour and Neo-Impressionism Fauvism ... I , he abandoned acareer inpainting Evening atMorgat Portrait of FernandeOlivier Lakeside Landscape *, inthe spirit * by *. All rights reserved London, CourtauldInstitute Galleries The Bridgeof Courbevoie fig.1- Seurat Van Dongen was also interested in the place of the line in composition. Around 1905-10, his figures would therefore appear surrounded by rings, ultramarine or reddish in colour, as one of the characteristics of his portraits. At his first exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1908, the painters of the “Die Brücke” association – in particular – made contact with him, thereby forging a link between German and French Fauvism.

A friend of Matisse and Derain with whom he shared exhibitions with the Fauvists, Auguste fig.2- Chabaud (1882-1955) was born in Nîmes and Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Line) made his debut at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst After World War I, he retired to the family estate All rights reserved at Graveson near to Avignon where he spent the rest of his life on his own between painting, sculpture and poetry. His *, a night scene, was one of the many guingettes (open air cafés) where one could go to on Sundays and eat galettes (pancakes). The atmosphere of freedom and pleasure attracted bohemians and artists who would meet models, provided entertainment for the local populace and a chance for the bourgeoisie to mix with the riffraff.

Sonia and

All of the Sonia Delaunay’s artistic phases (Fauvism and , easel painting or decorative arts) testify to her loyalty to pure colour, heightened by the laws of “simultaneous contrasts”. Born in the Ukraine, Sonia Terk (1885-1979) married Robert Delaunay in 1910. The dazzling colours and brutal workmanship of Philomene* (1907) reveal her early experimentations between Fauvism and , before turning to lyrical and colourful ‘Orphic’ . This important Fauvist portrait with its violent, cloisonné colours betrays the lessons of Gauguin and Van Gogh yet without erasing the stamp of Primitivism characteristic of contemporary Russian painting. The large hands and strong contrast between the model’s austerity and the floral profusion of the ground remind us that the model is a seamstress.

Sonia’s career remained inextricably bound to that of Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), even if each asserted their own personality and differences. Under the twofold influence of Monet and Gauguin, Robert Delaunay based his experimentations on colour and the laws of Chevreul. Moving from a form’s geometrical deconstruction to its reconstruction using colour alone in what the poet termed “Orphic” Cubism, in 1912 the Delaunays achieved a pure and abstract style of painting in which colour was both form and subject. During World War I, the two artists left for Spain and Portugal. Robert Delaunay’s painting then underwent a phase of “return to order”, as in Portuguese Still Life*. Colour shaped perspective and objects.

In the Independent Salon of 1911, Delaunay had already exhibited alongside André Lhote (1885-1962), Albert Gleize (1881-1953) and Roger de La Fresnaye (1885–1925) whom he was to meet again in 1917 at the exhibition of the Section d’Or (Golden Section) at the Galerie Boétie. Under the impetus of Jacques Villon, this group of artists sought harmony and the ideal form based on the principle of the golden number defined during the Renaissance.