Skip to main content
Label Text Andre Derain was a member of "Les Fauves" -- painters of considerable daring and imagination. Vivid and colorful landscapes characterize their work, paintings which stun the eye by virtue of the artist's audacious use of color. Derain was born in 1880 in Chatou, near Paris, and at the age of eighteen he entered the Academie Carriere where he met Matisse, Vlaminck and Marquet. Derain served in the military between 1900 and 1904 and following his discharge he began to experiment with bold, pure color. In 1905 the Academie group exhibited landscapes of such shocking color that the group was widely criticized and termed "Les Fauves", or the wild beasts. Matisse and Derain sought an art of sensuous, almost primitive, beauty. Rather than intensify their landscapes through light and color, as had been the case previously, both artists now executed imaginary landscapes peopled by exotic damcers, bathers and lovers. These works were influenced by Gauguin's South Seas works of the 1890's and display a hedonistic quality unseen in the work of either artist to that date. For Derain, this interest in Primitivism signaled a sudden and brief shift from oil to watercolor. Fauvism was a short-lived movement and by 1910 Derain's interests had shifted to the Cubism of Picasso and Braque. Following service in World War I, the artist worked in an increasingly eclectic manner attempting to fuse traditional subject matter with a modern style. Derain died in an automobile accident in Garches, near Paris, in 1954. Source: Bulletin, July-August, 1983.
Exhibition History"MCM - Y2K: A CENTURY OF ART ON PAPER," Des Moines Art Center, Dec. 11, 1999 - Feb. 13, 2000, ref. p.9, b/w ill. p.7

"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997

"Highlights from Three Collections: The Bohen, Coffin and Cowles Collections," Des Moines Art Center, July 8 - Sept. 11, 1983

"Selections from the Collection of Mrs. Fred Bohen," Des Moines Art Center, Nov. 13, 1977 - Jan. 1, 1978

"A Collection in the Making, Paintings and Graphic Arts from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bohen," Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nov. 12 - Dec. 9, 1967

"Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fred O. Bohen," Des Moines Art Center, June 23 - Aug. 21, 1966

"Andre Derain: 1880 - 1954," a retrospective exhibition, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., N.Y., Oct.20 - Nov. 21, 1964
Published ReferencesDMAC Bulletin, July/Aug. 1983, cover ill.

"A Collection in the Making: Paintings and Graphic Arts from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bohen," Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, 1967, cat. no.9, ill.

"Andre Derain: 1880 - 1954," Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., N. Y., 1964, cat. no.7

"Selections from the Collection of Mrs. Fred Bohen," Des Moines Art Center, 1977, cat. no.5, color ill. no.5

DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.59

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.95, color ill. p.94
DimensionsFrame: 32 7/8 × 38 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (83.5 × 98.4 × 8.9 cm)
Image (visual): 18 15/16 × 25 in. (48.1 × 63.5 cm)
Accession Number 1983.9
Classificationswork on paper
CopyrightPublic Domain
InscriptionsA. Derain (l,r)
Provenance(Galerie André Pacitti, Paris); Rene Drouet Gallery, Paris; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, NY); Mildred Bohen [purchased from the previous, 1964]; Des Moines Art Center [bequest of the previous, 1983]
Les Nymphes (The Nymphs)
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
André Derain
1913-1919
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Giorgio Ghisi
after Giulio Romano
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Francesco Bartolozzi
after Lipriani
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Martin Kippenberger
1989
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
André Dunoyer de Segonzac
1924
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
William T. Richards
1885
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Arthur B. Davies
ca. 1924
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Jeanne Mammen
1930
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Raphael Soyer
date unknown