Early life of Maurice de Vlaminck

Maurice de Vlaminck was a French painter who was born 4 April 1876 and died on 11 October 1958. He is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were united in their use of intense colour. At the controversial Salon d'Automne exhibition of 1905, Vlaminck was one of the Fauves.

Maurice de Vlaminck was born on Rue Pierre Lescot in Paris. His father Edmond Julien father taught him to play the violin at an early age. He began painting started in his late teens. He studied with a painter named Henri Rigalon on the Île de Chatou in 1893.. Vlaminck, then 23, met an aspiring artist, André Derain, on the train to Paris towards the end of his stint in the army with whom he struck up a lifelong friendship.

This was the turning point in his life was a chance meeting. in 1900, Vlaminck completed his army service, and the two rented a studio together, the Maison Levanneur which now houses the Cneai, for a year before Derain left to do his own military service. he wrote several mildly pornographic novels illustrated by Derain In 1902 and 1903. He painted during the day and earned his livelihood by giving violin lessons and performing with musical bands at night.

After viewing the boldly colored canvases of Vlaminck, Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, Kees van Dongen, André Derain, Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy, Vlaminck participated in the controversial 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibition. Louis Vauxcelles, the art critic criticized the painters as "fauves" thus giving their movement the name by which it became known, Fauvism.

Vlaminck traveled to London, and painted by the Thames in 1911. He again painted with Derain in Marseille and Martigues in 1913. He was stationed in Paris during World War I, and began writing poetry. He eventually settled in Rueil-la-Gadelière, a small village south-west of Paris. He then traveled throughout France from 1925, but continued to primarily paint along the Seine, near Paris.

Vlaminck felt that Fauvism had been overtaken by Cubism as an art movement blamed Picasso "for dragging French painting into a wretched dead end and state of confusion". In the 1870s and 1880s Vlaminck's compositions show familiarity with the Impressionists, many of whom had painted in the same area. His work later displayed a dark palette, punctuated by heavy strokes of contrasting white paint.

To know more about Maurice de Vlaminck please visit here : http://www.blouinartinfo.com/artists/maurice-de-vlaminck-190202

BLOUIN ARTINFO is the preeminent global source for up-to-the-minute news, information, and expert commentary on art, artists, and the business and pleasure of making, buying, and understanding art.