Vlaminck and Derain share a small workshop in the suburbs of Paris. During the summer of 1905 Matisse invites Derain to spend two months with him in Collioure. They confront their young experiences and work together on the same themes. This season is very prolific : Derain executes about 30 paintings during this short period.
At the beginning of this phase Matisse appears as a continuator to Seurat while using pure colors as Gauguin had done. Derain wants to interpret the blinding sun light without shadow from the middle of the day as Signac had done in Saint-Tropez. Derain excessively increases Seurat's dots until they are re-attributed with figurative forms such as small boats in the harbor.
This synthesis in an unprecedented artistic daring baffles the visitors of the Salon d'Automne. The art critic who utters a horror cry when entering the "Salle des Fauves" was probably in complicity with the artists. Fauvisme is born. It will be ephemeral but its place in the evolution of modern art is extremely important. Losing the reference to Impressionnisme, it ensures a transition between Cézanne and Kandinsky.
Arbres à Collioure 65 x 81 cm painted by Derain with splendid colors was sold for £ 16.3M including premium by Sotheby's on June 22, 2010. By the same artist but closer to Matisse and Seurat, Barques au Port de Collioure 60 x 73 cm was sold for $ 14M including premium on November 4, 2009, also by Sotheby's.
From the same series by Derain, Barques à Collioure, oil on canvas 39 x 46 cm, was sold for £ 5.9M including premium by Christie's on February 9, 2011 and is now estimated £ 7.5M for sale by Sotheby's in London on February 28, lot 11.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
SOLD for £ 10.9M including premium