Maurice de Vlaminck

Maurice de Vlaminck , 1876-1958, French painter, writer, and printmaker. At first an avid racing cyclist, he supported himself (c.1900) as a musician and taught himself to paint. Vlaminck early adopted the strident palette and twisted lines of Van Gogh. He rejected the intellectual approach of cubism , but became associated with fauvism , applying exuberant colors to the canvas directly from the paint tube. Vlaminck was one of the first artists to be influenced by African sculpture. He advanced from the fauvist style to paint strong, often grim landscapes (e.g., Village in the Snow, Philadelphia Mus. of Art). He repeated these so often that they lost much of their original power. Vlaminck also wrote several novels and books of reminiscences.

Bibliography: See his autobiography tr. by M. Ross (1967); illustrated biographies by P. MacOrlan (1958) and J. Selz (1963).

Vlaminck, Maurice de (1876–1958). French painter, printmaker, and writer. A colourful and many-sided character, as a young man he earned his living mainly as a racing cyclist and orchestral violinist, painting in his spare time virtually without instruction. Indeed, he delighted to inveigh against all forms of academic training and boasted that he had never set foot inside the Louvre: ‘I try to paint with my heart and my loins, not bothering with style.’ In 1901 an exhibition of van Gogh's work in Paris overwhelmed him, intensifying his love of pure colour, and with Matisse and Derain he became a leading exponent of Fauvism, often using paint straight from the tube in exuberant compositions—mainly landscapes. From 1908, however, his palette darkened and his work became more solidly constructed, under the influence of Cézanne. In 1910–14 he was also mildly influenced by Cubist stylization, although he came to dislike Picasso and regard him as a charlatan. After the First World War he moved from Paris and in 1925 he settled in a farmhouse in Eure-et-Loir. His later work became rather slick and mannered, but he built up an international reputation. In addition to painting he wrote novels and several volumes of memoirs.

Vlaminck, Maurice de (1876–1958). French painter (mainly of landscape and still-life), printmaker, and writer, born in Paris, to a Flemish father and a French mother. He left home in 1892 at the age of 16, and from 1893 to 1896 was a professional racing cyclist (he was a large and athletically built man), enjoying the attention his success at the sport brought him: ‘At that time women admired us in the same way as today they admire an airman.’ An attack of typhoid fever ended this career, and after doing his military service, he earned his living for the next few years mainly as a violinist in nightclub orchestras (both his parents were musicians). A colourful and many-sided character, he also did other jobs, including playing billiards semi-professionally, and in 1902 he published his first novel, D'Un Lit dans l'autre (‘From One Bed to Another'), with illustrations by Derain (they became friends after they were both involved in a minor railway accident, and they shared a studio in 1901–2). All the while Vlaminck painted in his spare time. Apart from a few lessons from a family friend when he was a boy, he had no formal instruction in art, and he liked to inveigh against all forms of academic training, boasting that he had never set foot in the Louvre: ‘I try to paint with my heart and my loins, not bothering with style.’ In 1901 he was overwhelmed by an exhibition of van Gogh's work at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris: ‘I was so moved that I wanted to cry with joy and despair. On that day I loved van Gogh more than I loved my father.’ This turned him decisively towards art as a career, and in 1905 he exhibited with Derain, Matisse and others at the 1905 Salon d'Automne that launched Fauvism. At this time his work showed a love of pure colour typical of the movement; often he used unmixed paint squeezed straight from the tube. From 1908, however, his palette darkened and his work became more solidly constructed, under the influence of Cézanne. In 1910–14 he was also mildly influenced by Cubist stylization, although he came to dislike Picasso and regard him as a charlatan.

During the First World War Vlaminck was briefly mobilized, but he spent most of it working in war industries. Soon after the war he moved out of Paris and in 1925 settled in a farmhouse in Eure-et-Loir. Thereafter his subjects were taken mainly from the surrounding countryside. His work became rather slick and mannered, but his reputation grew steadily in France and abroad during the interwar years. After the German invasion of France in 1940, he—like several other well-known artists—was courted by the Nazis for propaganda purposes, and in 1941 he visited Germany as part of a group that included Derain, Despiau, van Dongen, Dunoyer de Segonzac, and Friesz. In 1944, immediately after the Liberation, he was arrested and interrogated, and although no action was taken against him, the suspicions of collaboration damaged his career. By the end of his life, however, he had been more or less rehabilitated. In addition to novels, Vlaminck wrote several volumes of memoirs. He was a pioneer collector of African art, although this had no influence on his style. There are examples of his work in many collections of modern art.