Derain also strengthened his ties with Matisse who advised him to paint in Collioures and in London. At that time he was already conscious that the period of realism was over as he believed that lines and colours had powerful meanings to express himself as he did with his «Mountains in Collioures» in 1905. Derain worked intensely and joyfully and produced some 30 paintings, 20 drawings, 50 sketches and many pastels within six months. Colour was then his obsession and he played daringly with lines and dots following Matisse's example. Both worked closely and confronted their works trying to readapt Gauguin's concepts.
When Matisse started to work on his «Joy of Life», Derain soon followed in his footstep with «The Dance» and «The Golden Age». Meanwhile Fauvist works were at the centre of a scandal at the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris.
Critics delivered harsh opinions about the works of those painters they described as «Fauves» (wild beasts), believing they were expressing wild instincts and some kind of utter violence. Derain himself replied that «colours were like dynamites serving to explode light».
Derain's art was full of bloom then and influenced Othon Friesz and Braque who soon adopted his way of painting..
Forging his own personality Derain gave Fauvism a meaning that was distinctive compared with the works of other painters of that movement. Van Gogh's influence was always present in his paintings while he was constantly eager to question what he had already achieved.
It seems obvious that between 1904 and 1908 Derain tried to find an idealistic balance regarding Fauvism as most of his works show various attempts regarding the placing of colours on his canvasses as if he felt some dissatisfaction about what he had done.
If one compares his «Table» of 1904 with his «Still life with a table» of 1904-1905 as well as his «Portrait of Champi» of circa 1904, or «Bust of a woman» of circa 1905 and his painting of «Regent Street, London» of 1906, it seems clear that he was trying to find the perfect representation of Fauvism. All these paintings look different as if Derain had not achieved what he really wanted or reached his best yet. Derain was then obsessed with effects and geometric schematisation regarding human bodies and nature. In effect, he was among the first to use pure tones and to have followed the major principles of Fauvism by creating a new kind of space without perspective or shadows only through the suggestion or alternation of flat dots, the expressive transposition of colours and lines showing a living and dynamic synthesis.
Still, he continued his experiments as seen in his painting «The Thames with two men looking at the river from a parapet» of 1905-1906 and «Charing Cross Bridge» of 1906, two works, which were different in style.
The painting showing the Thames is composed with patches of colours (Blue, yellow, white and green) with only a few dots while the one representing Charing Cross bridge seems to have been divided in two, the left side with wide patches of colours while the right side is mainly composed of dots as if the artist had produced two paintings in one.
Derain continued to meet success between 1906 and 1910 but sensed that Picasso was paving the way to another form of painting. He went with him to Avignon after his marriage in October 1907 but did not try to produce Cubist works though he had a marked interest in African art, which he found utterly expressing. His attempt in the direction of Cubism could be found in his sketch of «Women bathers» of 1908 or his landscapes of Cassis where he tried to simplify forms, in a style reminiscent of that of Cézanne, but at the same time he destroyed several works with which he was dissatisfied.
In 1907, Derain signed a contract with Daniel Kahnweiler who exhibited his works in his gallery rue Vignon in Paris. However he never tried to experiment Cubism to the utmost as he limited himself to showing reality.
Fauvism disappeared from the French artistic horizon at the outbreak of the First World War when Derain produced the portrait of “Iturrino”, which signalled his final rupture with the use of pure colours. At that time he had turned his back on his old acquaintances and was going his own way trying to find new concepts alone.
Derain then showed a melancholic attitude in his canvasses produced from 1913 as if he had been confronted with some anguish. His series of portraits, mainly women, are to be compared with those of Kisling produced in the early 1920's. They all seem impavid or somewhat suffering. Russian collector Serge Chtchoukine acquired most of these portraits and took them to Moscow..
During the war years Derain did not paint much and more than once expressed his sadness feeling that many changes would occur. His attitude could be explanained by the fact that he was engaged in fighting and lived in dire conditions in trenches. In 1917 he said he enraged not to see again the lovely faces of women and children and landscapes not scarred by bombshells.
After the war, he tried to find joy but in some way his dynamism was broken. Still, he continued to paint but produced works, which were at the opposite of those magnificent Fauve works. Still, he met success in many exhibitions held in Paris and befriended Kisling who worked under his influence. Derain painted many nudes and portraits with some minute but sombre touch. Rejecting Cézanne's lessons he felt more in tune with Renoir as shown in many nude paintings produced between 1921 and 1935.
He also painted ballet scenes, exacerbating his liking for music and exhaling some fantasy and working for the Russian ballets. His painting then became more decorative and less spectacular.
Derain faced another period of uncertainty and went on to live in some kind of exile in Chambourcy in 1935. It seems that he wanted to live far away from the bustling Parisian life trying to find in his solitude some solution to his distress which increased in 1937 after an exhibition when people thought that his works were an alibi to condemn in his name the efforts of modern artists. Against his will, he became the standard-bearer of an opposition movement that wanted to promote a return to classicism.
Derain became increasingly melancholic in his paintings and seemed to be hesitant while painting certain landscapes falling into the trap of banality. Certain landscapes painted with black skies appeared to announce some incoming disaster. In 1939, he was affected by ill health and during the war he adopted a controversial attitude regarding the occupation of France which left some scars in the following years.
After 1945, Derain did not manage to escape from boredom as if he had overestimated his possibilities or made too many straining efforts the previous years. As the art critic Frank Elgar said he wanted to dominate his century whereas he was himself dominated by the centuries that preceded him.
Derain's main mistake was to have eschewed Cubism failing to follow Picasso's example while his inspiration died out after 1913.
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