Maurice de Vlaminck - Côte de mer

Maurice de Vlaminck had painted seascapes on a number of occasions since the beginning of the 1920s. Then, in the early 1930s, he produced a series of paintings during stays on the French Atlantic coast that captured the sea and the sky in a succession of different—typically dramatic—moods. Although the artist has pared down his palette to a small number of colors, Côte de mer deftly musters a richly nuanced scale of tonal values to register the stirring churn of a storm front moving in. The paints are applied liberally and with expressive unrestraint, in contrast with the sharp line demarcating the horizon, which divides the picture so that the heavy sky dominates. Whitish-gray passages in the low clouds correspond to the bright surf of the waves breaking on the beach. Horizontal bands of color indicate the abrupt alternation of light and dark areas placed in immediate juxtaposition, resulting in a depth effect that is further enhanced by the seagulls deployed as repoussoir elements on both sides of the painting and the boat with billowing sails. Though these objects may be unremarkable at first glance, they let the artist achieve a forceful impression that an elemental force has been unleashed upon the impotent creates—animals and humans alike—that are at its mercy.

Aufsatz Matthias Fischer, PDF, 120 KB

Provenance

Erworben bei Max Moos, Genf, von Karl Im Obersteg

Literature

Baumgartner/von Tavel 1995
Michael Baumgartner und Hans Christoph von Tavel: Die Sammlung Karl und Jürg Im Obersteg, hrsg. von der Stiftung «Sammlung Karl und Jürg Im Obersteg», Bern, Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1995, S. 58, Nr. 11, Abb.

Exhibitions

Bern 1959/1960
Französische Malerei des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern 1959-1960 Nr. 5 (Küste in der Normandie)

Bern 1961
Maurice de Vlaminck, Kunstmuseum Bern, 1961, Nr. 186 (Küste in der Normandie)

Bern 1975
Sammlung Im Obersteg, bearb. von Hugo Wagner, hrsg. von Kunstmuseum Bern, 25. Juni-14. Sept. 1975, Nr. 90, Abb.

Wien 2003
Im Banne der Moderne: Picasso, Chagall, Jawlensky, BA-CA Kunstforum, Wien, 4. Sept.-30. Nov. 2003, Nr. 78

Basel 2004
Die Sammlung Im Obersteg im Kunstmuseum Basel. Picasso, Chagall, Jawlensky, Soutine, Kunstmuseum Basel, 14. Febr.-2. Mai 2004, hrsg. von der Stiftung Im Obersteg, Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 2004, Nr. 185

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