While a movement of art is categorized by formal qualities or unity of message, artists expand the definitions as they create. What artistic cultural narrative are they entering? Do their pieces affirm the current conversation or offer a rebuttal? It is questions like these that Andre Derain’s The Palace at Westminster raises. The conversation between Fauvism and Impressionism is put on display through this series of works by Derain, Monet, and Matisse. The idealogical differences are displayed through a visual conversation. In many ways, The Palace at Westminster manifests elements of the Impressionism’s attention to light and the use of naturalistic use of color to create depth. During the creation of The Palace at Westminster, Derain is under the shadow of Monet’s successful Impressionism London series. How will this young Fauvist represent the city? On the other hand, the brilliant saturated colors of Matisse and Derain seek to liberate color from the confines of naturalism. This conversation further explores the autonomy of the artist to create works that are not explicitly of one set of characteristics. Could the historically rich city of London be radically rendered in Fauvist style or was Derain making his work more palatable to the precedent of Impressionism? This arrangement of cityscapes seeks to expose the tension between the artistic movements of Fauvism and Impressionism and how they are blended in The Palace of Westminster.
André Derain, The Palace of Westminster, 1906–1907, Oil on canvas, 1975.1.168
Derain is rendering an image that displays both artistic movements. This is the bridge between the walls. The layered brush and inclusion of grey and blue into the color palette are similar to the Impressionist style. The green and yellow water in the foreground and patched sky in the background follows the fauvist style of incoherent use of space and color. The paint and brushwork move in conjunction to each other causing an undulating rhythm in the image. Similarly to Monet, the vibrancy of the color is subdued by the dark horizon of the city. Yet Derain does not obscure and desaturate his colors in order to create depth. The work is its own creation. It is still in the conversation within the room but it cannot to be tritely pushed to one side or the other.
Claude Monet, The Thames Below Westminster, 1871, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London, UK
A hazy evening or early morning, Monet paints the Thames filled with activity. Though there is no direct source of sunlight, the light is ubiquitous, reflecting off of the water and sky. This is Monet’s rendering of the Westminster, a piece that Derain and his contemporaries would have been very familiar with in the archive of English city scenes. Unlike Fauvism, Monet’s perspective includes the methods of naturalistic desaturation and darkening of the horizon line to cause the illusion of deepened space. Note that Derain paints the same image from the opposite side of the Thames.
The Waterloo Bridge by Monet is characterized by the textured paint strokes and emphasis on light in the material world. Shadows are naturalistically indicated by the heightened saturation of color. This painting is similar to Derain’s Westminster in the content, cityscape of London with river boats, and the use of grey blue to create depth. There is also a similarity of colored texture in the sky with the subtle use of pinks and green. Yet this image is unique in the obscure haze Monet utilized to render depth.
Henri Matisse, View Of Collioure,1905, Oil on Canvas, Hermitage St. Petersburg
Liberated from the restrictions of reality, color takes on a new purpose in Matisse’s View of Collioure. Regardless of natural observation, color is used to construct the image as its own entity rather than a window into a coherent space. While there are no pink mountains in Derain’s Westminster, there are similarities to this Fauvist painting. Not only does this work precede Derain’s visit to London, Matisse and Derain work together to develop the style of Fauvism. Similar to the arbitrary colors used in this image, Derain fashions his Thames River and London sky with unnatural yellow, reds, and greens.
André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, 1906, Oil on Canvas, Musee d'orsay http://www.wikiart.org/en/Search/Charing%20Cross%20Bridge%20-%20Derain%20Andre
A contemporary painting to The Palace of Westminster, this is Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge completed in the same year. This is a fully Fauvist style rendition of London. Unstable image and arbitrary use of color indicates that Derain was not trying to bow his head to any stylistic claim that Impressionism had on the city of London. Derain’s Westminster is similar to this image in his use of brush stroke, cityscape content, and titled horizon line. However, this image further argues that while Derain was able to render London in a fauvist fashion he chose to incorporate a more Impressionistic style in his Palace of Westminster.
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