André Derain (1880-1954) - Reclining female nude

Beautiful drawing by André Derain, a reclining female nude.

Pen and Indian ink on cardboard.

Dimensions of the work: 30,7 x 41,3 cm.

Signed by the artist in lower right: "A. Derain". Stamp of the Galleria Del Milione, Milan, in blue ink on the verso with a handwritten archive number (4221).

Work Analysis: A beautiful piece; the work demonstrates the artist's great ability to express himself with quick, fluid lines—a woman touching her hair, creating movement in the reclining figure. Speed ​​and immediate simplicity capture that everyday moment of the reclining woman, undoubtedly a model who posed in his studio. Derain loved depicting female nudes and immediately conveying the figure's moment of action to the viewer. The key tenets of Fauvism were: simplicity of figures with a few continuous, rapid lines, the use of warm colors in oils or gouaches, and the ability to immediately convey the artist's meaning to the viewer, moving in a different direction from that of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

External dimensions: 43 x 54,50 x 4 cm.

Derain was one of the greatest exponents of Fauvism, together with Henri Matisse (his friend and collaborator in art exhibitions), other painters such as Charles Camois and Loius Valtat.

Also Derain had friends like Maurice Utrillo, Suzanne Valadon and in 1899 he met Maurice de Vlaminck.

In 1905 he exhibited his paintings at the Salon d'Automne and at the Salon des Indépendants, which gave the name to this artistic movement (Fauve), due to the vivid, bright and bold colors with refined tones expressed on his works on canvas or paper.

There was a period when he was influenced by Paul Gauguin's way of painting, his colors thus became less vivid and in 1910 he went to paint with Pablo Picasso, he did not adhere to the daring techniques of Cubism.

Derain's style is strongly influenced, at the beginning of the twentieth century, by Neo-Impressionism, in particular by the works of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh.

Compared to the other Fauvist painters, Matisse and Vlaminck, Derain is more measured, brighter, more serene.

His vast production is often characterized by a naturalism that combines elements typical of Caravaggio.