Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism

Amory, Dita, and Ann Dumas, with contributions by Isabelle Duvernois and Isabelle Monod-Fontaine
2023
192 pages
126 illustrations
8.5 x 10.5 in.
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During the summer of 1905, Henri Matisse and André Derain went on holiday in Collioure, a modest French fishing village fifteen miles from the Spanish border. This groundbreaking book examines how two artists, entranced by the shifting light and stunning imagery of the eastern Mediterranean, laid the groundwork for the movement known as Fauvism (from the French fauve, or “wild beast”). Featuring more than 70 paintings, watercolors, and drawings produced by Matisse and Derain during their stay, the book also brings to life their personal and artistic revelations with 21 of their letters, published here for the first time in English. Vivid and engaging texts detail their daring experiments with color, form, structure, and perspective; the scandal their paintings caused when they were exhibited several months later; and how, despite the jeering remarks from critics, these works changed the course of French painting. Emphasizing as never before the legacy of that summer, this publication shows how the two artists’ radical investigations galvanized their contemporaries, and how this strain of modernism, created almost by accident, resonates even into the present day.

The Town Beach, Collioure, Opus 165 (Collioure. La Plage de la ville. Opus 165), Paul Signac  French, Oil on canvas
Paul Signac
1887
The Palace of Westminster, André Derain  French, Oil on canvas
André Derain
1906–1907
Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) in the Conservatory, Paul Cézanne  French, Oil on canvas
Paul Cézanne
1891
House behind Trees, Georges Braque  French, Oil on canvas
Georges Braque
1906–7
Fishing Boats, Collioure, André Derain  French, Oil on canvas
André Derain
1905
Olive Trees at Collioure, Henri Matisse  French, Oil on canvas
Henri Matisse
Summer 1906 (?)
Matisse Painting Mme Matisse in a Japanese Robe at the Seashore, André Derain  French, Ink on paper
André Derain
summer 1905
Reclining Bather, Henri Matisse  French, Watercolor and graphite on paper
Henri Matisse
1905
Woman with an Umbrella at the Seashore, Henri Matisse  French, Watercolor and charcoal on paper
Henri Matisse
1905
Young Sailor II, Henri Matisse  French, Oil on canvas
Henri Matisse
1906
Still Life, Henri Matisse  French, Oil on canvas
Henri Matisse
ca. 1905
View of Collioure, Henri Matisse  French, Oil on canvas
Henri Matisse
1907

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Amory, Dita, and Ann Dumas. Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023.