Superb MAURICE DE VLAMINCK Signed c. 1930 Watercolor Start Price USD 12,000.00 Current Price USD 12,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, October 25, 2008 End Time Monday, November 24, 2008 Location Los Angeles See more about 'Superb MAURICE DE VLAMINCK Signed c. 1930 Watercolor' Description     Superb MAURICE DE VLAMINCK Signed c. 1930 Watercolor       Click to View Image Album This is a magnificent original, museum quality signed watercolor and ink on paper painting attributed to internationally acclaimed artist Maurice de VLAMINCK (French 1876-1958), circa 1930.   Vlaminck was a professional athlete, a professional musician, a poet and novelist, and a painter-printmaker; of all his occupations, that of artist was the one he most clung to for most of his life. One of the original group of Fauves (along with Matisse and Derain) who showed at the Salon d'Automne in 1905, his two strongest influences were Van Gogh and Cezanne, but his greatest love as a painter was color. Although he was a prolific printmaker for many years, most of his earlier works are printed in black and white. But whether he is working in color or in black and white, his style is as good as a signature to identify his works. As Jean Selz has observed in his study, Vlaminck (trans. Graham Snell, [NY: Crown, n.d.], pp. 75-76), "It became possible to speak of Vlaminck's own style because of the consistency, amounting to that of a leitmotiv, with which a certain landscape appeared in his work: a road . . . running across an area of land that the painter has chosen not for its picturesque qualities but rather, it seems, for its nondescript appearance; it looks like so many lumps of earth and as our eyes scan it they linger not so much to admire the spectacle as to draw a life-giving force from it, the same force that impels the march of the seasons, the perpetual round of Nature, the flow of sap in the tree and the ear of corn to swell. This sense of throbbing life is something we feel in the way Vlaminck painted things, and it even infuses the peasant's cottage, standing between the road and the fields, where we have an apprehension of the toilsome lives of the people that live in it." Selz also suggests that Vlaminck's perspective of the countryside owes something to the way a professional bike racer, bent over his handlebars to cut down on air resistance, catches snatches of vision as he speeds by, an idea that looks better the more we look at Vlaminck's landscapes.   This rare and remarkable watercolor of a village street scene is a classic example of Vlaminck's imagery. It is unframed, measures 15 ¾” x 19” and is signed in ink on the front lower right "Vlaminck" (the “V” and “L” are somewhat smudged). It is in excellent overall condition aside from a ½” tear in the sheet upper left edge with associated paper loss, a ¼” tear on the sheet edge extreme right and a few soft handling creases. PROVENANCE: Alice and Murray Braunfeld, Beverly Hills. Please scroll down on the item description to view additional photographs. Payment is due within 7 days. Please view my other auctions and ebay store for additional museum quality fine art and collectibles. Payment       I accept the following forms of payment: PayPal Money Order Personal Check Click to View Image Album     FREE scheduling, supersized images and templates. Get Vendio Sales Manager.    FREE scheduling, supersized images and templates. Get Vendio Sales Manager. Over 100,000,000 served. Get FREE counters from Vendio today! Place a Bid!