André Derain (1880-1954)
1906
Oil on canvas
Bought in 1972
Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle
Photography: (c) Philippe Migeat – Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/Dist. RMN-GP 
© Adagp, Paris

Les Deux Péniches (The Two Barges) is an important painting of Derain, one of the Fauvism movement protagonists with Matisse. It is one of the masterpieces of the National Museum of Modern Art’s collection. It was part of the exhibition “Masterpieces” of the Centre Pompidou Metz. Painted in London, where Derain worked in the footsteps of Monet, the composition is audacious: seized from a plunging view, the motif is reduced to two barges, one of which is partially truncated by the edge of the canvas, and to the stretch of water on which they seem to be slipping. The “photographic” framing recalls the cropping of certain Japanese prints. Furthermore, the composition that suppresses the skyline increases the frontality of the painting. Regarding colour, Derain’s Fauve repertoire is evident: the pure colour, the high contrasts, the wide and animated strokes used for water. Although he turns later in time to sobriety and the measure, this painting definitely represents his “youthful turbulences”, as mentioned by Apollinaire in 1916.