Landscape

Artist André Derain (French, 1880-1954)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateabout 1906

DimensionsPainting: 21 × 31 3/4 in. (53.3 × 80.6 cm)
Frame: 28 5/8 × 39 3/8 × 2 7/8 in. (72.7 × 100 × 7.3 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1951.379

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 03

Label Text“I am aware that the realist period in painting is over. We are about to embark on a new phase. … I believe that lines and colors are intimately related and enjoy a parallel existence from the very start, and allow us to embark on a great independent and unbounded existence.” —André Derain André Derain here transforms the traditional subject of the landscape view with thick black outlines, strong brushstrokes, and bold layers of color. The inspiration of nature remains important, but the work is just as much a world of the artist’s own creation as Derain takes liberties of creativity and self-expression. Studying engineering in Paris as a young man, Derain befriended painters Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse (see paintings by them in this gallery) and began to pursue his own artistic desires. A 1901 Van Gogh exhibition was hugely influential on Derain and his peers, spurring interest in expressive color and abstracted form. Reviewing an exhibition of Derain, Matisse, and other artists in 1905, a critic pronounced them fauves, or wild beasts, for the boldness of their color and line (the artists’ brash style became known as Fauvism).Published ReferencesHilaire, G., Derain, Geneva, 1959, p. 69, no. 77, repr. (as Paysage, Carrières-Saint-Denis, 1909).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 54, pl. 283. (as 1904).

Kellerman, Michel, André Derain: catalogue raisonne de l'oeuvre peint, vol. 1 (1895-1914), Paris, Galerie Schmit, 1992, no. 37, repr. p. 23.

Freeman, Judi, Fauves, Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1995, no. 12, p. 60, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryDudley Peter Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. 1958.

Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales; Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria; Fauves, 1995-1996, no. 12.

Toledo Museum of Art, From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting, Jul. 17-Oct. 11, 2015.