November 2008

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Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

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Vlaminck’s painting was audacious in its energy. It could, however, also give a sense of reflective peace. For example, there is the magnificent Sous-bois (1904, Paris, Galerie Pierre Levy; Fig. 3) with its criss-crossing branches forming an awning for the solitary figure, kneeling to find her chestnuts on the ground. The blues, mixed with whites, of sea and sky provide a feeling of rich tranquility in Les bords de la Seine à Nanterre (1904, Dr & Mrs Julius H. Jacobson ii). Blue is the colour of calm, and its soothing magic prevails in Les Voiles, Chatou (1906-07, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, collection Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon), in which a solitary sailboat floats swan-like over the lapping waters, and the magical Les Pêcheurs (1907, private collection), with its green islets punctuating the blue-white. One can feel the mood of the water on those summer days. For many of us, the exhibition’s revelation will be the collection of ceramics painted at the dealer Ambroise Vollard’s behest in the years between 1906 and 1910. Vollard bought most of Vlaminck’s studio in 1906 and his regular purchases after that enabled Vlaminck to live from his painting. Vollard’s idea was that the ceramicist André Metthey should make works to be painted by his brilliant painters. The ceramics did not sell in the way Vollard anticipated and the only buyers were such enlightened connoisseurs of the avant-garde as Gertrude and Leo Stein and Sergei Chtchoukine. The ceramics are endlessly playful and fun with their swirling designs. Particular favourites include the Assiete au coq (1906-10, Paris, Collection Larock-Granoff; Fig. 1), the Vase bleu (1906-10, Paris, Collection Larock-Granoff), which has a face with startled round eyes and what looks like a yellow tongue sticking out amid the swirling blues, and the Assiete à décor d’oiseau (1906-10, private collection).