This is the first of a two-part post on the works of American artist Paul Cornoyer. Cornoyer was born in 1864 in St Louis, Missouri. He attended the St. Louis School of Art, where the director noticed his talent and encouraged him to pursue his studies abroad. In 1889, with sufficient funds to study in Paris, Cornoyer entered the Acad�mie Julian, where he studied under Jules Lefebvre, Benjamin Constant, and Louis Blanc.

Greatly influenced by the French Impressionists, Cornoyer painted street scenes in sun, fog, and snow; at sunrise and at sunset. In 1892 he was awarded the First Prize from the American Art Association of Paris. Inspired by his travels abroad, Cornoyer returned to his native city in 1894 and won the Gold Medal from the St. Louis Association of Painters and Sculptors. Immediately thereafter, he was given a commission to paint a mural for the Planter�s Hotel in St Louis.

St Louis mural study

American Impressionist William Merritt Chase purchased a painting by Cornoyer that was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Chase befriended Cornoyer, and in his correspondence to the younger artist, urged him to come to New York. Accordingly, in 1898 Cornoyer made New York his home. He devoted himself to the representation of urban street scenes.

Cornoyer became a member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club in 1902. In 1906 he won the club�s coveted Inness Prize. He had a one-man show at the Albright Museum in Buffalo in 1908. The following year he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design.

Cornoyer had a summer home at East Gloucester, Massachusetts. There he taught and painted harbour and city scenes. He helped found the North Shore Art Association in nearby Gloucester in 1916. Cornoyer died at his summer home in 1923.
Note: Sizes are rounded up or down to the nearest centimetre:

1900 Dewey's Arch oil on canvas 41 x 31 cm

1901 Winter in New York oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm

1908c Late Afternoon, Washington Square oil on canvas 56 x 67 cm

1910 Afternoon, Madison Square oil on canvas 122 x 152 cm

c1910 Madison Square after the Rain oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

c1915 Sidewalk Conversation, Gloucester oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm

c1915 The Street Beyond oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

c1916 December, Gloucester oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

c1920 Street in Gloucester oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm

A Boulevard in Paris oil on canvas

After the Rain, the Dewey Arch, Madison Square Park oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

Afternoon Light, Venice oil on canvas 51 x 64 cm

Bryant Park oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm

Central Park West, New York oil on canvas 31 x 41 cm

Cheyne Walk and All Saint's Church, London oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm

Flat Iron Building oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

Flatiron Building oil on canvas 56 x 69 cm

Gloucester oil on canvas 69 x 56

Madison Square oil on canvas 66 x 81 cm

Portrait of Andr� Derain by Henri Matisse 1906

This is part two of a two-part post on French artist Andr� Derain. For part one and biographical notes on Derain, see below. Part one covers the years 1904 - 1906. Part two covers 1907 - 1948.

1907 Bathers

1907 Road in the Mountains

c1908-9 Forest at Martigues

1908c Landscape in Provence

c1911-14 Portrait of a Man with a Newspaper

1912 Still Life

1912 The Grove

1912 Trees on the Bank of the Seine

1913 Martigues

1913 Portrait of a Girl in Black

c1919-20 Madame Derain in a White Shawl

1922 Landscape near Barbizon

1924 Harlequin and Pierrot

1925 Young Girl

1926 Landscape

c1931 Melon, Flask, Knife and Bread on a Napkin

c1934-9 Woman with a Hat

1936 Vase of Flowers

1939 The Painter and his Family

c1942 Vue de Donnemarie en Montois

c1948-50 Nature Morte aux Poissons

This is the first part of a two-part post on the works of Andr� Derain (1880 � 1954), who was a French painter and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. He was born in 1880 in Chatou, Yvelines, �le-de-France, just outside Paris.
My personal belief is that Derain did his best work, the colourful Fauvist works, in a very narrow period of his career, namely the first decade of the C20th. I particularly like the work he did over a period of only two years, 1906 and 1907 � the paintings from Collioure and London.

In 1898, while studying to be an engineer at the Acad�mie Camillo, he attended painting classes under Eug�ne Carri�re, where he met Matisse. In 1900, he met and shared a studio with Maurice de Vlaminck and began to paint his first landscapes. His studies were interrupted from 1901 to 1904 when he was conscripted into the French army. Following his release from service, Matisse persuaded Derain's parents to allow him to abandon his engineering career and devote himself solely to painting; subsequently Derain attended the Acad�mie Julian.

Derain and Matisse worked together through the summer of 1905 in the Mediterranean village of Collioure, attracted by the light over the Mediterranean Sea. Later that year they displayed their innovative paintings at the Salon d'Automne. The vivid, unnatural colours led the critic Louis Vauxcelles to derisively dub their works as les Fauves, or "the wild beasts". The term was seized upon and provided a name for the Fauvist movement. In March 1906, the noted art dealer Ambroise Vollard sent Derain to London to compose a series of paintings with the city as subject. These London paintings remain among his most popular work.

Derain experimented with stone sculpture and moved to Montmartre to be near his friend Pablo Picasso and other noted artists. At Montmartre, Derain began to shift from the brilliant Fauvist palette to more muted tones, showing the influence of Cubism and Paul C�zanne. At about this time Derain's work began overtly reflecting his study of the old masters. The role of colour was reduced and forms became austere; the years 1911-1914 are sometimes referred to as his gothic period. In 1914 he was mobilized for military service in World War I and until his release in 1919 had little time for painting. After the war, Derain won new acclaim as a leader of the renewed classicism then ascendant. With the wildness of his Fauve years far behind, he was admired as an upholder of tradition. In 1919 he designed the ballet La Boutique fantasque for Diaghilev, leader of the Ballets Russes. A major success, it would lead to his creating many ballet designs.

Nazi propaganda made much of Derain's presence in Germany during the second World War, and after the Liberation he was branded a collaborator and ostracized by many former supporters. A year before his death, he contracted an eye infection from which he never fully recovered. He died in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, �le-de-France, France in 1954 when he was struck by a vehicle.

1903 Self-portrait

1904 Les Vignes au Printemps

1905 Collioure

1905 Fishing Boats at Collioure

1905 Fishing Boats, Collioure

1905 Henri Matisse

1905 Mountains at Collioure

1905 Port

1905 Port de Peche, Collioure

1905 The Mountains at Collioure

1905 Trees in Colliure

c1905 Barque au port de Collioure

1906 Blackfriars Bridge

1906 Bridge over the Riou

1906 Charing Cross Bridge

1906 Houses of Parliament at Night

1906 London Bridge

1906 Charing Cross Bridge

1906 Pool of London

1906 The Red Sails

1906 The Turning Road, L'Estaque (note: this is the same view as Bridge over the Riou 1906, above)

1906 View of the Thames