Maurice de Vlaminck

Original Prints: Woodcuts

One of the most inspired painters of the fauve movement, Maurice de Vlaminck (1876 - 1958) was certainly its most prolific printmaker.

His chance train-wreck encounter with André Derain in 1900 led to their fervent collaboration in a shared studio at Chatou, in the outlying suburbs to the west of Paris.

Encouraged by Matisse to exhibit at the Salon d'Automne in 1905, when "fauvism" first came into being, he went on to produce a number of outstanding landscape woodcuts representing the region, characterized by an extreme simplification of line, rhythmically skewed perspectives, and turbulent atmospherics inspired by Van Gogh.

Maisons à Bougival Houses at Bougival Walterskirchen 9a woodcut, circa 1910-1913, an extremely rare trial proof impression, from the Guillaume Apollinaire collection

Rue à Louveciennes Street in Louveciennes Walterskirchen 20b woodcut, circa 1910-1913, from the artist's fauve period, a fine impression, signed and numbered, from the 1914 edition