Sunlight on Water

Maurice de Vlaminck

1905 · Oil on canvas · Robert Lehman Collection

Maurice de Vlaminck was at the center of an avantgarde movement known as Fauvism. Fauve, meaning “wild beast,” characterized a group of painters closely linked to Henri Matisse, and who flourished in France in the early years of the twentieth century. Fauve painters rejected the Impressionist technique and modulated color in favor of bold brushstrokes and a highly keyed palette. In the first decade of the last century, Vlaminck shared a studio with fellow Fauve André Derain in Chatou, a suburb northwest of Paris. Sunlight on Water is one of his many canvases to explore light and atmosphere, and its collateral colors, in local settings.

Artist

Maurice de Vlaminck

Date

1905

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975