(Chatou 1880–1954)
Femme accoudée, circa 1940–45, oil on canvas, verso estate stamp, ‘Atelier André Derain’ with handwritten number 353, 60 x 72.5 cm, framed, (PS)

Provenance:
Galerie Maeght, Paris
Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin (both gallery labels on the stretcher)

Literature:
Michel Kellermann, André Derain, Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Editions Galerie Schmit, 1959, no. 1869, p. 127

Unlike earlier portraits, which were executed down to the finest detail, the oil painting ‘Femme accoudée’ looks rather like a perfunctory sketch. However, Derain is able to create extraordinary tension in this work precisely by means of broad brushwork, a limited colour palette, as well as the omission and accentuation of details. With just few brushstrokes Derain is able to depict the vest slipped off the left shoulder of the woman immersed in thought. The technique known as ‘grattage’, which he applies to various areas of the present work, such as the in the shaping of the hair and the accentuation of the armrest, is derived from Derain’s activity as a sculptor, to which he returned with greater intensity especially in the last fifteen years of his life, from 1939 onwards. The accentuated features resulting from the scraping technique in combination with the seemingly fleeting and rapid brushwork lead to the painting’s special subtlety and sublimity. “…And perhaps he did not intend to do much more than just preserve the appearance of things a bit, the marvellous, magical and surprising appearance of everything that surrounded him.”(1)
81)Alberto Giacometti in: Pieter Coray (ed.), André Derain, Bildhauer, Milan 1994, p. 43

“I am not attached to any principle – except that of liberty, but my idea of liberty is that it must be related to tradition. I do not wish to expound any theories as to what ought to be done in the arts. I simply paint the best that I can. The point is that there are too many theories running around and not enough passion to make them work.” (Denys Sutton, André Derain, 1960, p. 5)