Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

December 15, 2004 – May 22, 2005
East Building, Ground Floor, Northeast

André Derain, *Charing Cross Bridge*, London, 1906, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.3

We look across a sandy colored beach or walkway that stretches away from us to our right and then turns ninety degrees to our left in the distance, to enclose a teal-green body of water filled with rows of small rowboats in this nearly square, stylized landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with vibrant colors, in jewel-toned topaz and royal blue, emerald and mint green, pale orchid purple, golden yellow, cream white, and crimson red. The boats grouped along the beach close to us are lined up in a row along the beach to our right, punctuated by a few vertical masts. The beach across from us in the distance is lined with a cotton candy-pink, pale lavender-purple, sage-green, and pumpkin-orange warehouses in front of a line of cobalt-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes nearly to the top edge of the canvas. The sky is pastel purple, green, yellow, and peach above. The artist signed the work in dark paint in the lower right corner: “Braque.”

Georges Braque, The Port of La Ciotat, 1907, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.6

This abstract, horizontal painting is created with broad, visible strokes in areas of saffron orange, harvest yellow, carnation pink, violet, tomato red, cobalt and ultramarine blue, and shades of icy, seafoam, and pine green. Many of the colors are layered like strata in a canyon. A few objects are more recognizable, like a loosely painted pink kettle with royal-blue highlights at the back next to a bottle outlined with blue against the background. A spring-green teapot with a peach lid is to our right. The surface, presumably the table, is painted in tones of marigold and pumpkin orange. The left two-thirds of the background is painted with strokes of lavender-blue and mauve-pink streaked with cream white. The rightmost third is lapis blue. The artist signed the painting in the upper right corner, “Henri Matisse.”

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Henri Matisse, Still Life, c. 1905, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.40

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Albert Marquet, The Pont Neuf, 1906, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.164

We look across a wide river with buildings lining the opposite bank as two tugboats painted with stripes and strokes of cherry red, white, and cobalt blue steam along from right to left in this stylized, horizontal landscape painting. The paint is loosely and thickly applied throughout. The water is painted with layers of short, horizontal strokes and daubs of ice and royal blue, shell pink, bottle green, and the red, white, and blue of the boats to suggest reflections. One tugboat is just left of center and passes the small village on the opposite bank. Smoke rising from that boat’s stack create eddies of cobalt blue, marigold orange, and petal pink. The bow of a second tug enters from the middle right. The riverbank directly in front of us, in the lower left corner of the composition, is painted with dashes of mustard yellow layered with horizontal strokes of burnt orange. The village on the far side fills the top third of the painting and parallels the river. Its buildings are butter yellow with blue or pumpkin-orange roofs. A few tall, narrow, emerald and avocado-green strokes suggest cypress trees growing amid the village. Horizontal strokes near the river’s edge could be another line of buildings. The building’s reflections are suggested by short, parallel strokes of golden yellow, orange, and green extending into the river. The trees, buildings, and boats are outlined in black. The sky above the village is mint green layered with thick strokes of white, and swirls of azure blue and light pink. The artist signed the painting with black letters in the lower left corner, “Vlaminck.”

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Maurice de Vlaminck, Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou, 1906, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.4

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Albert Marquet, Posters at Trouville, 1906, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.1

Trees and mountains nearly fill this composition and are painted with long, mostly parallel brushstrokes in this horizontal landscape. The trees are painted with long dashes of royal and aquamarine blue, pine and mint green to suggest leaves on coral-red trunks. The grass below is lemon-lime yellow, and a walking path is picked out with lavender-purple strokes. The mountains beyond the trees are painted with flat areas of coral, apricot orange, and cobalt blue. The sky above is pale turquoise with a few swirling, cream-colored clouds.

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

André Derain, Mountains at Collioure, 1905, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.4

A French window with its sill lined with flowerpots opens into a view of boats floating in a body of water in this loosely painted, vibrantly colored, stylized, vertical painting. The doors open inward, and they are painted with coral orange and cranberry red. The wall behind the door to the left is peacock blue and the wall to our right is fuchsia pink, and those colors are reflected in the opposite windows of the doors. Three flowerpots in crimson red, marmalade orange, or royal blue sit on the windowsill in front of us. Foliage in the pots is painted with short strokes of cardinal red and turquoise blue. Over the window, a two-paned transom window pierces a forest-green wall. The view through the panes has a band of salmon pink across the top and dabs of celery green and banana yellow below. The dabs and dashes of pine and lime green continue down the sides of the window and across the sill, suggesting vines growing up around the opening. A band of ultramarine blue beyond the flowerpots could be a balcony. Several rust-orange masts of ships with hulls painted with swipes of indigo blue, flamingo pink, forest green, and marigold orange float in the water beyond. The water is painted with parallel strokes in pale pink and butter yellow. The sky above is painted with thick, wavy lines of steel blue, periwinkle purple, and seafoam green. The artist signed the work in red paint in the lower right, “Henri Matisse.”

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.7

We look across river at a bridge with a city skyline beyond in this stylized, horizontal landscape, which is painted entirely with broad, visible brushstrokes in vivid, saturated colors. The river spans nearly the width of the canvas, and the riverbank is lined to our left with a row of several buildings between us and the bridge. Those buildings are outlined with royal blue and filled in with mostly flat areas of color in coral pink, mint green, tangerine orange, and pinkish tan. Letters across the top of the building farthest from us reads “BREVER.” Eight boats are tied up at the foot of the buildings. The pointed hulls of three extend into the scene from the lower left corner, painted in marigold orange and outlined in cobalt blue. Five more boats, with rounded prows and hulls and painted with lapis blue and muted aqua, line up like a row of empty shoes. The bridge runs from behind the tallest building to our left across and off the canvas, and is painted with deep lapis blue with crimson-red Xes crisscrossing the span to suggest trestles. The front faces of the pilings below are also highlighted with red. The river fills most of the bottom half of the painting. The water to our left is painted as a field of coral pink with a few, short horizontal baby and cobalt-blue strokes, suggesting reflections of the boats and a bridge piling. A narrow band of kiwi green and sky blue lines the pink field to our right. Next to it, the water is painted as short, horizontal, disconnected strokes and dots mostly in bumblebee yellow with some strokes in bubblegum pink and pale burnt orange, all against the off white of the canvas below. The final zone, to our right, is more densely painted with short dashes in indigo, turquoise, and aqua blue. Beyond the bridge, the skyline is painted in silhouette with spiky spires to our left in mint green and a mass of shorter buildings in periwinkle blue to our right. Four clouds of pale yellow billow off the bridge in front of the skyline. The sky above is painted with short and long vertical strokes of butter yellow, rose pink, pale orange, and a few areas of watermelon pink. The artist signed the work with cobalt-blue paint near the lower left corner: “a derain.”

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.3

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Raoul Dufy, The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1906, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.3

Shown from the waist up, a woman with a crimson-red face, dark brown eyes, and a black and white garment faces and looks out at us in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. Her face is painted as a flat field of vibrant red outlined with teal green. Her features are outlined in black, and her closed lips are light gray. Her hair is pulled back under a black head covering that falls over her shoulders. The headdress seems to be layered with a headband with bright yellow polka dots against spring green. Her dress is painted with thick, charcoal-gray lines and circles against a white background. The brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially on the garment. In the background behind her, a field of ivory white is contained within bands of steel gray above, along the top edge of the canvas, and below, behind her shoulders. Beyond her body, in the lower left corner, is a patch of sky blue.

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Kees van Dongen, Saida, c. 1913 (?), Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.2

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Raoul Dufy, July 14 in Le Havre, 1906, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.13

Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Maurice de Vlaminck, Woman with a Hat, 1905, Gift (Partial and Promised) of Lili-Charlotte Sarnoff in memory of Robert and Martha von Hirsch, 1981.84.1

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: Fauve paintings from the National Gallery’s permanent collection were brought together for this special installation to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the naming of the fauve movement. Featuring works by Henri Matisse, André Derain, Georges Braque, and Maurice de Vlaminck, the installation coincided with the National Gallery’s 2005-2006 celebration of French art.

Organization: This installation was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Attendance: 107,035

The Fauves
Fauve Painting in the Permanent Collection

Braque, Georges: French, 1882 - 1963

Derain, André: French, 1880 - 1954

Matisse, Henri: French, 1869 - 1954

Vlaminck, Maurice de: French, 1876 - 1958