Kees Van Dongen came from humble origins in a small suburb of Rotterdam, Holland in 1877.  However, shortly after coming to Paris in 1900, he achieved immense popularity for his Fauvist figure painting and was patronized by members of Parisian high society.  Aside from his portraiture, Van Dongen was renowned for enjoying night life, cabarets, and the leisure activities of the wealthy.  He visited Italy, Spain, Morocco, and the South of France where he was absorbed by the favorite pa﷽stimes of the upper class.

In the 1920s he began to turn away from his Fauvist color palette of the early 1900s, partly because he was inspired by the colors that he saw in tr♏avels to the Mediterranean and also in🍌 response the tastes of his new clientele.  His later works, thus, contain a more harmonious color palette as he sought to create more sophisticated and universally appealing pictures. 

Van Dongen’s newfound wealth enabled him to buy an elaborate villa in the city of Cannes.  This location a🐎fforded him greater accessibility to his clients and their social activities.  In the 1920s and again in the mid-1950s, Van Dongen rendered picturesque scenes of the Cannes shoreline.

Voiliers dans le port de Cannes captures the luminosity and carefree sprit of Cannes.  The resort activities of sailing and strolling on the beach illustrate the city to be one of respite.  However, it is the soft pink coloration of the sun reflecting off the beach and Le Mont Chevalier that emphasizes the particular location.  Van Dongen centers our attention upon the white sail boats which are juxtaposed by the deep blue water.  The water is rendered with long, smooth brushstrokes imparting a feeling of stillness to the scene.  The present work, like much of Van Dongen’s later oeuvre, renders a vibrant, blissful scene, using lustrous coloration.  “Throughout his life, Van Dongen maintained his youthful spontaneity that was to be a lifelong charm of his personality” (William Steadman and Denys Sutton and Cornelius Theodorus Marie Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue🌊), Tucson, University of Arizona Museum of Art, 1971, p. 10).