Louis Valtat

Ambroise Vollard, Paris (acquis de l'artiste)
Collection particulière, Europe

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Les Fauves, 1962, no. 112

The canvas is not lined. There is a very light diagonal scratch in the lower left quadrant 30 cm in length (visible in the catalogue illustration). Under ultraviolet light, there is no evidence of retouching. This work is in very good original condition.
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oil on canvas. Painted in 1906.

Fig. 1  André Derain, Paysage au bord de la mer : la Côte d'Azur près d'Agay, 1905, Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Ottawa

Fasciné par les rochers rouges qui se répandent le long de la côte de l'Estérel, à Anthéor, dans le midi où il effectue de fréquents séjours, Valtat en fait de multiples représentations. Sources d'inspiration féconde, ces récifs aux couleurs fauves feront l'objet d'élogieuses critiques telles que celle de Gustave Geffroy commentant les peintures exposées en 1905 au Salon d'Automne : "M. Louis Valtat montre une vraie puissance pour évoquer les rochers rouges ou violacés, selon les heures, et la mer bleue, claire ou assombrie" (Gustave Geffroy, Le Journal du 17 octobre 1905).

Valtat was fascinated by the red rocks that stretched along the Esterel coast, at Anthéor in the south of France where he frequently holidayed, and painted them many times.  A fertile source of inspiration, these Fauve coloured rocks would be greatly admired by critics such as Gustave Geffroy who commented on the picture of the rocks exhibited in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne: "M. Louis Valtat demonstrates real strength in evoking the rocks that are at times red, at times purplish, and the blue sea, that is either luminous or darkened, depending on the time of day" (Gustave Geffroy, Le Journal, 17th October 1905).