작품 상세

KEES VAN DONGEN , ROTTERDAM, 1877 - MONACO, 1968 Bouquet of flowers Oil on canvas 30.8 x 27.3 cm The originality of this composition is primarily its point of view. Depicted from above, this bouquet offers an almost perfect rotundity where the flowers, seen from above, unfold their corollas, surrounded by a crown of leaves. There is no room for chance in this regular arrangement. Reinforcing this optical effect, the vase, also round, partially disappears under the floral mass. The plane on which it rests is no longer more than a plain surface, limited only by the sides of the canvas. A blurred shadow spreads to the right, like a diluted emanation of the vase... because here it is the colours that build the shapes. No contour lines, just layers, juxtaposed colours, pure or sometimes amalgamated. The thick brushstrokes model petals and leaves. The colours are vivid and contrasting: vermilion, yellow and orange for the flowers, a shade of green for the leaves. The vase's globe, which is smoother, is blue and pale green. Finally, to magnify the brilliance of his bouquet, the painter has chosen a grey background with subtle variations of mauve. Kees Van Dongen (1877-1968) was a naturalized French Dutch painter. He first studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, then moved to Paris in 1899, where he met the art critic Félix Fénéon, and began working as an illustrator for anarchist newspapers such as L'Assiette au beurre. In 1905, Van Dongen embarked on the Fauve adventure by exhibiting alongside Matisse and Vlaminck at the famous Salon d'Automne, which caused a scandal with its 'cage aux fauves'. He lived at the Bateau-Lavoir, next door to Picasso. In 1916, seduced by the beautiful Léo Jasmy, who opened the doors of the big world to him, he abandoned his wife and moved with her into a private mansion in the Bois de Boulogne. He then became the socialite painter of the interwar period. Although in 1941 Van Dongen, already elderly, compromised himself by taking part in the 'trip to Berlin' organised by the Third Reich, he nonetheless became the official painter of the post-war jet set. Retired on the French Riviera, he painted Brigitte Bardot's portrait in 1959. In 1967, a major retrospective exhibition was held at the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. He died in 1968 in his villa in Monaco. Provenance: Chrisitie's sale, New-York, 4 November 1981, lot 171; Chrisitie's sale, Paris, 20 May 2009, lot 50. Certificate: Wildenstein Institute Signatur: Signed lower left 'Van Dongen'