Maurice de Vlaminck Quotes about Art

Maurice de Vlaminck was a famous French artist associated with the Fauve group of painters. Les Fauves is French for the wild beasts. He is best known for his bold brushwork and use of color in his landscapes and town views. Famous Maurice de Vlaminck artworks include “Restaurant de la Machine at Bougival”, “Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou”, “Paysage de Banlieue”, “Landscape near Martigues”, “Boats on the Seine at Chatou”, “Autumn Landscape”, “The Gardener”, “Le pont de Poissy”, “Houses at Chatou with Red Trees” and “The River Seine at Chatou”.

Mini biography: Born Maurice de Vlaminck on the 4th of April, 1876 in Paris, France. His mother Joséphine Caroline Grillet gave piano lessons and his father Edmond Julien taught the violin. Vlaminck married Suzanne Berly in 1894 and they had three children together. His second wife was his student: Berthe Combes. The artist died on the 11th of October, 1958 in Rueil-la-Gadelière, France at the age of 82. Vlaminck is buried at the Rueil-la-Gadelière cemetery, France.

List of Famous Maurice de Vlaminck Art Quotes

I knew neither jealousy nor hate but was possessed by a rage to recreate a new world, the world which my eyes perceived, a world all to myself. I was poor but I knew that life is beautiful. And I had no other ambition than to discover with the help of new means those deep inner ties that linked me to the very soil. Maurice de Vlaminck

What I could have done in real life only by throwing a bomb which would have led to the scaffold I tried to achieve in painting by using color of maximum purity. In this way I satisfied my urge to destroy old conventions, to disobey in order to re-create a tangible, living, and liberated world. Maurice de Vlaminck

Good painting is like good cooking; it can be tasted, but not explained. Maurice de Vlaminck

When I had spent a few days without thinking, without doing anything, I would feel a sudden urge to paint. Then I would set up my easel in full sunshine.. Vermilion alone could render the brilliant red of the tiles on the opposite slope. The orange of the soil, the harsh crude colors of the walls and greenery, the ultramarine and cobalt of the sky achieved an extreme harmony that was sensually and musically ordered. Only the series of colors on the canvas with all their power and vibrancy could, in combination with each other, render the chromatic feeling of that landscape. Maurice de Vlaminck

I had no wish for a change of scene. All these places that I knew so well, the Seine with its strings of barges, the tugs with their plumes of smoke, the taverns in the suburbs, the colors of the atmosphere, the sky with its great clouds and its patches of sun, these were what I wanted to paint. Maurice de Vlaminck

The thought of becoming a painter never as much as occurred to me. I would have laughed out loud if someone had suggested that I choose painting as a career. To be a painter is not a business, no more than to be an artist, lover, racer, dreamer, or prizefighter. It is a gift of Nature, a gift. Maurice de Vlaminck

Neither Derain, nor myself, were what was conveniently called in this period the bohemians, the bad men: we were simply nonconformists, the outsiders. Maurice de Vlaminck

I heightened all tones. I transposed into an orchestration of pure colors all the feelings of which I was conscious. I was a barbarian, tender and full of violence. I translated by instinct, without any method, not merely an artistic truth but above all a human one. I crushed and botched the ultramarines and vermilions though they were very expensive and I had to buy them on credit. Maurice de Vlaminck

Maurice de Vlaminck Self Portrait Painting

More on Famous French Artist Maurice de Vlaminck

How has Maurice de Vlaminck influenced your art making? Is he one of your favorite famous French Fauve painter? Let us know what you think about Maurice de Vlaminck in the comments below.

Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Vincent van Gogh, Andre Derain, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, and other Famous French Artists.