Portrait d’une jeune fille en noir (1913-1914)

Derain, André (1880-1954)

Portrait d’une jeune fille en noir (Portrait of a Girl in Black)
19131914
Oil on canvas, 116.5 x 89.3 cm
Hermitage MuseumSaint Petersburg

Under the influence of Cézanne, but also due to his friendship with Picasso and Braque, Derain broke with Fauvism, giving preference in his paintings to an almost monochrome precision in the revelation of forms. This artist indisputably forged his own style, halting on the threshold of Cubism. Picasso and Braque were not concerned with the visual aspect of what they depicted, but for Derain – an admirer of the art of the Old Masters – that sort of renunciation was still impossible. He was probably too engaged in the study of the work of mediaeval painters and the laws of composition that became established in Renaissance art. Some scholars reckon that this interest stifled his passion for searching, but that opinion is contradicted by the manner in which he painted during the final years of his career. The works of 1913 and ‘14, meanwhile, give a splendid sense of just how the artist’s views were developing – it is a sort of palette of ideas that would come to maturity later, showing the evolution of his visual language and artistic manner. (SHM)