Andre Derain (1880-1954), Baigneuse Nue aux Arbres (Nude Bather amidst Trees), etching and drypoint, c. 1909, signed in pencil and numbered 27/100. Reference: Adhemar 50. In very good condition, on ARCHES cream laid paper, with their watermark, with full margins, 7 x 3 3/4, the sheet 22 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches, archivally matted.

A fine impression, with a subtle layering of plate tone.

Derain clearly based the face in this print on the famous African Fang mask which he owned (and which influenced others who saw it in his apartment such as Picasso, e.g., in his Demoiselles d’Avignon). It is also related to a sculpture he owned, a late medieval Virgin and Child. In fact, as is argued by Jane Lee in her landmark article on Derain’s Prints (Print Quarterly, March, 1990), Derain was surely affected by late 16th Century Italian woodcuts in casting the “pose of the model, the curves of the trailing drapery repeating those oof her arm and hand.”

The landscape – the rolling hills – is probably based on the area of France between Collioure and Ceret, which was later to become known, according to Apollinaire’s phrase, as the “Mecca of Cubism.” Derain used a similar landscape in his print Paysage (Le Morin) and also in several paintings made at this time.

Andre Derain was born in Chatou, near Paris in 1880.  He worked with Henri Matisse in 1905 at Collioure, and participated in the 1905 Salon d’Automne with Matisse, Vlaminck, and Braque, the exhibition in which this group was labeled as Fauves, or Wild Beasts. Derain moved to the Montmartre section of Paris in 1907 where he met Picasso. He had his first one-person exhibition in Paris in 1916, and received many honors and exhibitions until his death in 1954.

Andre Derain (1880-1954) etching and drypoint Paysage (le Morin), 1911, signed and numbered 50/50 (although edition size is not known).  Reference: Adhemar 49. In good condition apart from some defects in the wide margins (a few nicks, and repaired tears at edges, not near image), with full margins with deckle edges, 11 1/2 x 14 1/4 (the sheet 17 1/2 x 24 1/2) inches, archival matting, on cream laid Arches paper (with the Arches watermark).

Andre Derain was born in Chatou, near Paris in 1880.  He worked with Henri Matisse in 1905 at Collioure, and participated in the 1905 Salon d’Automne with Matisse, Vlaminck, and Braque, the exhibition in which this group was labeled as Fauves, or Wild Beasts. Derain moved to the Montmartre section of Paris in 1907 where he met Picasso. He had his first one-person exhibition in Paris in 1916, and received many honors and exhibitions until his death in 1954.

This important print, showing evidence of both the Fauve and Cubist styles, was entitled Paysage dan la gout Italien, and given a date of 1913 in the Jean Adhemar catalogue of 1955, which has come to be regarded as the Derain catalogue raisonne for his prints.  But Jane Lee has argued (Print Quarterly, March 1990) that the print was more probably created in 1910-11, at the same time that Derain made several paintings relating closely to the print, especially the painting Le Morin, in which the landscape motif is the same as the central area of the print.

Paysage, Le Morin is a brilliant tour de force of printmaking.  Much burr (from the drypoint work) is in evidence; the composition and dimensionality carry connotations of ”Cezannisme”, and Derain’s Fauvist drawing is central. The print is based on a specific place in the French countryside (Serbonne dans le Grand Morin), yet one can understand how Adhemar could refer to this as a landscape in the Italian style; indeed, it has an classic Italianate look to it.

Andre Derain (1880-1954), Tete de Femme (Head of a Woman), drypoint, c. 1913, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Adhemar 37. On cream laid BFK Rives paper with the BFK Rives Eug. Delatre watermark. In very good condition, the full sheet with full margins (a few repaired tears/nicks at outer margin edges), 12 3/8 x 8 5/8, the sheet 23 3/4 x 17 1/4 inches, archival mounting.

A fine fresh black impression of this iconic modernist/cubist image, with a strong layering of plate tone and substantial  burr from the drypoint work.

During World War I much of the dealer Henry Kahnweiler’s stock (including a large number of works by artists including Derain and Picasso) was sequestered by the state and sold for war reparations in auctions between 1921-23. Derain’s prints done while Kahnweiler had his Paris gallery, from 1907-14, included only 11 impressions of the drypoint Tete de Femme, probably trial proofs and not from any edition (no edition or edition size is known).

Jane Lee, in her landmark discussion of Derain prints (Print Quarterly, March 1990) notes that in this print “the head is built on the cubist planar interruptions of a circle, but refers as much to medieval art as to cubism. In this it is close to drawings by Derain published during the War and, particularly in its medievalism, to great paintings of 1913 and 1914, such as the Portrait of Iturrino and the composition of four male figures, Les Buveurs.” She also feels that the head is related to a provincial statue of the Virgin that Derain had in his studio, which was as much a source of formal inspiration as the Fang mask that had so influenced him (as well as Picasso) a bit earlier.