Regent Street, London

André Derain

1906 · Oil on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

Commissioned by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard to emulate a series of earlier works by Monet, Derain made three trips to London in early March 1906, late March–mid-April 1906, and late January–early February 1907. Many of the London paintings may have been executed from sketchbooks after Derain's return to Paris. Among the artist's twenty-nine known scenes, the most striking are those of the Thames, in which he gave free rein to color, inventing red boats and painting the water green and yellow and the sky orange. In this view of Regent Street near Oxford Circle, his palette is more restrained, consisting primarily of subdued blues and strategically placed scarlets. Contemporary photographs of Regent Street show that Derain did not exaggerate. The street and sidewalks were jammed, the population of the city having reached nearly 400,000 at that time.

Artist

André Derain

Date

1906

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998