Provenance
Possibly purchased from the artist by (Ambroise Vollard [1866-1939], Paris), until at least 1935.[1] (Paul Pétridès, Paris); acquired June 1951 on joint account by (M. Knoedler & Co., New York) and (Sidney Janis Gallery, New York); full ownership acquired October 1951 by (Sidney Janis Gallery, New York);[2] sold 1951 to John Hay Whitney [1904-1982], Manhasset, New York; deeded 1982 to the John Hay Whitney Charitable Trust, New York; gift 1982 to NGA.
[1] Letter of 17 April 1985 from Michel Kellerman, in NGA curatorial files. Two labels on the stretcher of the painting include Vollard's name, and appear to indicate he lent to the painting to exhibitions in 1935 (recorded in NGA conservation report, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Although a letter of 9 July 1984 from Sidney Janis Gallery, now in NGA curatorial files, states that they acquired the painting from Knoedler in 1950, a letter of 9 January 1985 from Nancy Little, librarian at M. Knoedler & Co., also in NGA curatorial files, gives the more precise dates. The Knoedler number to which Ms. Little refers, A4642, is recorded in blue pencil on the stretcher of the painting. Ms. Little also confirms Pétridès as Knoedler's source. A letter of 5 March 1985 from the Galerie Pétridès, in NGA curatorial files, indicates that they have no additional information about the picture.
Accession Number
1982.76.4
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 81.3 × 100.3 cm (32 × 39 1/2 in.) | framed: 107.95 × 127.64 × 11.11 cm (42 1/2 × 50 1/4 × 4 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
John Hay Whitney Collection
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
André Derain (1880-1954) painted Mountains at Collioure during the summer of 1905, when he and Henri Matisse were working together in the Mediterranean fishing village of Collioure—the summer that produced the wildly colored paintings that provoked the critic Louis Vauxcelles to coin the term 'Fauves' (wild beasts). Mountains at Collioure demonstrates the Fauvist approach at its most radical: the landscape is rendered in colors that have no relationship to natural appearance—mountains in violet and blue, sky in green and pink, vegetation in orange and red—creating a painting that is about color as an independent expressive force rather than as a description of the visible world.
Cultural Impact
Mountains at Collioure is one of the foundational works of Fauvism, painted during the same summer that Matisse and Derain produced the paintings that launched the most radical color movement in the history of Western art. The painting's influence on subsequent color-based movements—from Expressionism to Color Field painting—has been enormous, demonstrating that color could be freed from its descriptive function and used as an independent expressive force.
Why It Matters
Mountains at Collioure is Fauvism at its most radical: a landscape rendered in colors that have no relationship to natural appearance, creating a painting about color as an independent expressive force. The 1905 date places this at the founding moment of the most radical color movement in Western art—the summer when Matisse and Derain made color wild and free.
