André Derain On Sale

André Derain is best known as a leading figure of the avant-garde movement and — alongside Henri Matisse — a cofounder of Fauvism at the turn of the 20th century. Derain’s innovative use of expressive colors and simplified forms in his figurative paintings, landscapes and portraits continue to dazzle collectors and art enthusiasts everywhere.

Born in 1880 in Chatou, France, Derain began his formal art training at age 18 at the Académie Camillo, where he met Matisse and Maurice de Vlaminck. In 1905, Derain, Matisse and de Vlaminck exhibited their works at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, where critic Louis Vauxcelles used the word fauves (wild beasts) to describe the loosely connected collective of artists’ prioritization of audacious, vivid color in their energetic works, eventually leading to wide adoption of the term Fauvism.

In 1905 and 1906, Derain traveled to London, where he produced a series of Fauvist “form through color” paintings. These included The London Bridge, Charing Cross Bridge and A Corner of Hyde Park. After seeing a retrospective of Paul Gauguin’s work, Derain painted The Dance, a nude that is demonstrative of Gauguin’s influence in its bold, flat colors and in Derain’s depiction of primitive dancing figures.

In 1910, Derain destroyed many of his unsold works and began painting landscapes in the Cubist style of Paul Cézanne. He befriended Pablo Picasso and grew interested in African tribal art. After World War I, he focused on figurative and nude drawings and, in the early 1920s, abandoned Fauvism and Cubism altogether in favor of classical art. In 1930, the artist publicly condemned modernism, leading to his ostracization by the avant-garde community. 

Derain was later honored with a retrospective of his works at the Kunsthalle in Bern, Switzerland. Additionally, the Exposition des Artistes Independants invited Derain to exhibit in 1937.

Derain’s wide range of styles — from Fauvism and Cubism to classicism and Postimpressionism — influenced many artists throughout his lifetime. Today, Derain’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate gallery in London, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. 

On 1stDibs, discover original André Derain prints, drawings and paintings.

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

Find a collection of modern paintings, sculptures, prints and other fine art on 1stDibs.

Bring energy and an array of welcome colors and textures into your space by decorating with figurative fine-art prints and works on paper.

Figurative art stands in contrast to abstract art, which is more expressive than representational. The oldest-known work of figurative art is a figurative painting — specifically, a rock painting of an animal made over 40,000 years ago in Borneo. This remnant of a remote past has long faded, but its depiction of a cattle-like creature in elegant ocher markings endures.

Since then, figurative art has evolved significantly as it continues to represent the world, including a breadth of works on paper, including printmaking. This includes woodcuts, which are a type of relief print with perennial popularity among collectors. The artist carves into a block and applies ink to the raised surface, which is then pressed onto paper. There are also planographic prints, which use metal plates, stones or other flat surfaces as their base. The artist will often draw on the surface with grease crayon and then apply ink to those markings. Lithographs are a common version of planographic prints.

Figurative art printmaking was especially popular during the height of the Pop art movement, and this kind of work can be seen in artist Andy Warhol’s extensive use of photographic silkscreen printing. Everyday objects, logos and scenes were given a unique twist, whether in the style of a comic strip or in the use of neon colors.

Explore an impressive collection of figurative art prints for sale on 1stDibs and read about how to arrange your wall art.