‘Madame Matisse au kimono’ is a very special work of art, having been among the first paintings to start the so called Fauvism movement of the early 20th century. The piece was created by André Derain during the summer of 1905, when he and his friend and fellow artist Henri Matisse spent the summer painting in a free and colorful manner in a French Mediterranean fishing village called Collioure.
Their works were later exhibited at the fabled Salon d’Automne exhibition, where their innovative style stirred quite the controversy, which resulted in the artistic movement being called Fauvism, from the French les fauves, which means “the wild beasts”. The painting shows Mrs. Amélie Matisse dressed in a colorful kimono, on a backdrop of bursting colors.
The work has been in private possession for the last four decades and it is now the artist’s most important portrait that has ever been offered at auction. Selling the masterpiece is Christie’s auction house, whose head of the Impressionist & Modern Art department, Brooke Lampley, said: “To have a large-scale portrait of this exceptional caliber and with such a celebrated muse as its subject makes this an unparalleled collecting opportunity for fine art connoisseurs worldwide.”
