Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a Vase from 1932 is a later work by Derain, painted long after he had abandoned the radical Fauvist style of his youth in favor of a more traditional approach to still life. The 1932 date places this in Derain's neo-classical period, when he was painting still lifes, nudes, and landscapes in a style that combined the lessons of the Old Masters with a subdued palette that had none of the wild color of his Fauvist years. The flowers are rendered with the careful observation and compositional balance that characterize his later work—a world away from the explosive color of Mountains at Collioure.

Derain's later still lifes are among the most controversial works of his career because they represent a radical retreat from the Fauvist style that made his reputation. The careful composition, the subdued palette, and the reference to the Old Masters tradition of still-life painting represent Derain's rejection of the avant-garde in favor of a return to traditional values—a choice that his former Fauvist colleagues saw as a betrayal but that Derain himself saw as a mature engagement with the Western painting tradition.

Flowers in a Vase is Derain's Fauvism abandoned: a still life painted with the careful observation, subdued palette, and compositional balance of the Old Masters tradition, a world away from the explosive color of 1905. The painting is either Derain's mature engagement with tradition or his retreat from the avant-garde—depending on whether you see his later career as a betrayal or a homecoming.