Christie’s France will auction on April 9 in Paris the work ‘Matisse and Terrus’, an “unknown” painting from 1905 by Adnré Derain and “fundamental” for the Fauvist movement, which will have an estimated starting price of 2 million euros .
As the auction house has explained, it is a Fauvist work of “exceptional rarity” that will go on sale in an olte of impressionist and modernist art. Never seen on the market, it has been preserved for almost 120 years in the same private collection.
Coming from the collection of the Catalan painter Etienne Terrus, who received André Derain and Henri Matisse in Collioure during the summer of 1905, Matisse and Terrus “marks the friendship between these three founding figures of Fauvism.”
This work of art, probably given to Etienne Terrus shortly after 1905, celebrates the camaraderie between Matisse, Derain and Terrus, as well as the genesis of Fauvism amidst the backdrop of the picturesque fishing port of Collioure and its surroundings.
In 1905, in this town on the border with Spain, the two pioneers of the Parisian avant-garde spent the summer surrounded by acquaintances, among them Etienne Terrus. During this period, André Derain created several works inspired by the place.
Unlike Matisse, Derain never returned to Collioure, turning this unique stay into a crucial moment in his career, marking the birth of a premise of revolutionary style of modern art.
‘Matisse and Terrus’ has a particular meaning in Derain’s work. A few months after his stay in Collioure, at the Paris Salon d’Automne of 1905, his bold style and vivid Fauvist palette were described as “an orgy of pure tones” that officially gave birth to one of the major art movements. modern.
Sitting quietly on a seaside terrace, probably overlooking Racou beach near Argelès-sur-Mer, ‘Matisse and Terrus’ “exudes an air of relaxation.” Matisse, with his distinctive red beard, is depicted on the left, smoking a pipe, while Terrus looks thoughtfully into the distance to the right.