Paysage (After the Storm) by Maurice de Vlaminck, 1938

Transcript

Paysage (After the Storm) by Maurice de Vlaminck, circa 1939, is made with oil on canvas and measures 51.5 cm high by 62.5 cm wide. It is located on Wall 3: European Tradition and Regional Landscape. 

From a distance and slightly gazing down, this artwork depicts a small rural area post-storm.

 At the bottom of the art piece and positioned left of centre is a dirt road heading towards the centre of the image and towards a few homes that are in the distance. A lone figure of a person dressed in blue walks along this path. On each side of the path is short dark-green grass with flecks of lighter green throughout. Dark, spindly trees are positioned on either side of the road at the bottom of the painting.

The houses in the distance appear to be one story with two of the homes being on the left-hand side of the road and one on the right. The two on the left have gabled roofs (which are pointy triangular roofs). One house has a dark brown roof and the other has a red roof. These two homes face the road so that only their sides are visible.

Across from these two homes, on the right-hand side of the road sits another single-story house, also with a gable roof. The house is cream in colour and is angled slightly showing the front of the house. There is a large square window in the top-centre of the home. Further off and well into the distance is a dark outline of a hill that slightly angles upwards to the right-hand side of the painting.

Above these houses, in the top third of the artwork, is a dark cloudy sky. Running horizontally in the middle of the storm clouds are lighter clouds and an area of bright blue sky. 

The artist signed his last name, Vlaminck, in the bottom right-hand corner, barely noticeable, in black paint. The artwork is framed in a thick two-toned gold and brown frame.

Maurice Vlaminck, born in 1876, was a French painter considered to be one of the preeminent artists working in the Fauvist movement at the start of the 20th century. Vlaminck's approach to Fauvism involved a heavy outlining of brightly-coloured forms, and this would influence the development of expressive painting and printmaking on German modernist artists of the time. Rejecting conventional themes, rather than depicting traditional historical narratives or figures of social importance, Vlaminck often painted scenes from everyday life. Vlaminck painted until his death in 1958.

USU purchased this artwork in 1940.

The biographical information included in this description was sourced from the websites of the Tate Modern and The Art Story. Read more from the Tate Modern here. Read more from The Art Story here.