The New York herald., 1922-03-12
De Vlan7inck Sees
Nature in a Flash

Maurice de Vlaminck is one OF the
most considerable figures in the modern
group in Paris and his exhibition in the
Joseph Drummer gallery deserves at
tention here He is not unknown to US,
since he has exhibited several times
and always with eclat in the De Zayas
Galleries.
The present collection was probably
not put together by the artist to de-
scribe his present day attitude toward
the world but arrived more or less by
accident. as most foreign collections do.
Consequently there is no special chance
for an argument in 1t. De Vlaminck'
work always has been exceedingly per-
sonal, and as far as 1t may be ue-
scribed in phrase seems to be par
ticularly peremptory kind OF impress
sionism. He seems to see nature as in
a lightning flash. He has been best
known here for one or two harbor
scenes in which sailboats chained into
n temporarily tight bouquet In dock
have nevertheless still felt the surge OF
the tide.
In his later landscapes now shown he
still goes in for lightning flashes and
aims as much as anything for intense
purity of light. There is one picture OF
"Mill" in which the glare upon a
after air-clarifying storms Is rendered
with astonishing freshness. Another in
teresting composition is called "Facto-
ries" and shows what lot a genuine
artist can do with a subject that might
not strike some people as material at
all In certain simple landscape themes,
De ylanlirck is less happy. His tenn
perament is not apparently much stirred
by simple bread and butter. Motzar-
tian subjects. He requires dramatics.
In excellent taste, Mr.. Drummer COM
ments upon De Vlaminck as follows:
zone may see how simply the art of
Maurice de vlaminck results from his
nature by comparing the pictures he
painted up to 1914 with the work he has
done after the four long years that he
spent in the war. It Is to go on from
the point in painting where he was In
terrupted that he takes up his brushes
again and continues the series of his
landscapes and still-lifes with occa-
sionally a figure piece-the whole form
ing the true life history of De Vlaminck.
a record of the meeting In his work of
the intellect that one may fancy him to
have inherited from his French ances-
tors-and the zest of living that one
associates with the Flemish people who
gave him his name.
1876. AS a boy he lived In the nearby
town of Chatou where Andre Derain was
his neighbor and thenceforward
through life his friend and comrade In
painting. Together they exhibited at the
Independents and the Salon d'Automne,
influencing each other to some extent,
but giving. each Of them, the full meas
ure of his temperament with ever more
OF force and clarity.
TOO intelligent not to see the tendency
of the art Of his period and to profit by
Its teachings he Is to be thought of. un-
doubtedly. as one OF those workers In
whom instinct plays the dominating role.
Perhaps no painter OF our time has ex-
pressed his character more clearly and
fully In his pictures than Maurice dc
vlaminck. He is himself In the earliest
works that he has exhibited. and though
he has never stood still II is the same
robust delight In nature and work that
runs through his whole production"