Galerie Max Moos, Geneva
Col. Michael Paul, New York (sold: Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, October 20, 1966, lot 105)
Acquired at the above sale

Nature morte aux roses et au muguet epitomizes the vibrant palette of Van Dongen’s Fauvist works and provides a unique approach to the traditional still-life genre. Roses erupt from a vase and dominate the canvas, transforming a typically unassuming subject into a dynamic composition. Paint is applied in think brushstrokes and color assumes an expressive and highly charged quality. The artist has balanced the bursts of color in the upper half of the picture plane with the deep crimson of the table top. The highly saturated hues Van Dongen employed in Nature morte aux roses et au muguet reflect his affiliation with the Fauves. According to Denys Sutton, "The artist's break-through occurred at a time when Fauvism was the dominant style in France...In 1904 Van Dongen was in touch with two of its principal exponents - Derain and Vlaminck. A good deal of critical ink has been spilled over the question whether or not Van Dongen may be considered as one of the founders of this effective and ebullient style...In the final analysis the question is not all that relevant. What is important is that he was a painter who found a natural means of expression in the use of thickly applied colour - bold stark reds, greens and blues, colours which, he once pointed out, held for him an almost symbolical meaning" (William E. Steadman and Denys Sutton, Cornelius Theodorus Marie Van Dongen (exhibition catalogue), Tucson, Ariz🅺ona, 1971, pp. 20-28).

Van Dongen was little known to the public as a painter until his contribution to the sensational Salon d’Automne of 1905 brought him popular acclaim. By 1908, van Dongen's paintings had begun to receive widespread recognition. For a brief time, he was represented by the renowned dealer Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, who organized exhibitions of his work in Düsseldorf and Paris. Later that year, he was taken up by the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, which represented many of the most prominent artists of the twentieth century, including B💟onnard, Matisse, and Modigliani. Van Dongen's predilection for bold color and energetic compositions also prompted the artists' group Die Brücke to invite him to exhibit in a show of their work in Germany.

In Nature morte aux roses et au muguet, the color is deployed freely, the contrasts are sharp – it is, as in his earlier Fauvist manner, a vibrant pictorial interpretation of the visual reality of the still life. According to Marcel Giry, “In fact, it can be said that all three painters [Bonnard, Matisse, and Marquet] were motivated by a desire to rearrange the perceptible world, adding their own lyrical note, and that their technique was the same in each case, consisting of the vigorous application of pure colors…Van Dongen, however, breaks down some of his colours under the influence of light in order to suggest the enveloping atmosphere” (Marcel Giry, Fauvism: Origins and Development, New York, 1981, p. 84).