Maurice de Vlaminck – the son of professional musicians, who became a famous French modernist artist

Maurice de Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck was a famous French artist of the 20th century, one of the founders of Fauvism. He was a multifaceted personality, he painted with gouache and watercolors, worked fruitfully in different genres: from nude and portrait to landscape and still life.

Maurice de Vlaminck, in addition to the fine arts, has been engaged in literary activities for many years. In total, he wrote 26 books, including several novels and collections of poetry.

Biography

Maurice de Vlaminck was born on April 4, 1876 in Paris into a family of professional musicians – a violinist and pianist. When the boy was two years old, his parents moved from the French capital to the suburb of Le Vezine.

During his school years, Maurice, thanks to his father’s perseverance, learned to play the violin. And at the age of 17, he began attending private painting lessons with local artist Henri Rigalon. In 1894, unexpectedly for his parents, Maurice de Vlaminck married Suzanne Burley. This marriage was short-lived. Three daughters were born in the marriage, but eleven years after the wedding, the couple divorced.

In the late 1890s, Maurice was drafted into the army, from which he retained a hatred of military drill for the rest of his life. And returning home after demobilization, in June 1900, Vlaminck accidentally met Andre Derain on the train. And Maurice firmly decided to devote his life to the fine arts. Together with a new friend, he rented a small workshop in Shatu and began to paint pictures with enthusiasm.

The most difficult period of the artist’s life began, associated with a catastrophic lack of money.

Derain left for the south of France a year later, and Maurice was forced to combine his career as an artist with odd jobs. In between painting, he gave private violin lessons to children. And at night he played in the orchestra in clubs and taverns.

The situation changed dramatically after the scandalous Paris Salon, which took place in the autumn of 1905.
Conservative critics led by Louis Vauxcelles staged a real persecution of young artists. Nevertheless, the work of Maurice gained great fame and Ambroise Vollard soon became interested in them. The philanthropist bought several paintings by the young painter and helped him organize a solo exhibition in Paris. Thanks to an influential patron, Vlaminck quickly gained the status of a fashionable contemporary artist.

During the First World War, Maurice was mobilized for public service in one of the defense enterprises. Soon the artist married a second time to Bertha Combe, who gave him two more daughters.

The interwar period was very successful for the master.

In 1925, he bought a luxurious country house and lived there with his family, painting. Vlaminck traveled extensively in France, making sketches, and landscape gradually became the main genre of his work. The master’s paintings sold well. His personal exhibitions were successfully held in many cities of Europe and the USA.

After the occupation by Germany in 1940, the 64-year-old painter took a conciliatory position towards the new authorities. At the invitation of the Nazis, together with a group of French artists, he took part in a propaganda trip to the Third Reich. After the Allied victory over Germany, he was accused of collaborationism.

Then the master retired to the tiny provincial town of Rueil-la-Gadelier, where he lived the rest of his life with his wife and children from his second marriage. On October 11, 1958, Maurice de Vlaminck died at the age of 82.

The most famous paintings

The distinctive French artist has created many noteworthy works. Yet the most famous paintings by Maurice de Vlaminck are:

• At the Bar (1900) is one of the central works of the artist’s early period. This work, written in the innovative style of Fauvism, caused a storm of indignation among conservative critics at the Paris Salon of 1905.
• The Seine near Chatou (1906) is one of the most recognizable and beloved by connoisseurs of modernist art landscapes created by the author. The picture is painted with bold large strokes and attracts viewers with a special flavor of the composition.
• Red Trees (1906) is another interesting landscape, executed in the characteristic manner of the author. It is already clearly felt the influence of the ideas of Cubism, which the artist was fond of at the beginning of his creative career.
• Self-Portrait with a Pipe (1911) is a work in which the author portrayed himself in a strict three-piece suit with a pipe in his mouth and a bowler hat on his head. The painting is executed in cold grayish shades, unlike most of the other works of the painter.

Maurice de Vlaminck was a bright and distinctive artist. Having not received an academic education, he achieved wide international recognition and left many interesting works to posterity.

Paintings by Maurice de Vlaminck