| schema:description | "Born in the Paris suburb of Chatou, Derain became one of the pioneers of Fauvism after encounters with Matisse and Vlaminck. He subsequently switched to Cubism, but settled into a quiet, classical, realist style after World War I. His book Pantagruel is a collection of illustrations accompanying the tale of the giant Pantagruel written by the 16th-century French humanist Rabelais, in an edition published by Albert Skira. Taking inspiration from medieval tarot and playing cards, Derain created simple, caricaturish images with single-block multicolor woodcuts. The work contains 42 large illustrations, but the total comes to over 100 counting smaller illustrations interpersed in the text. His most celebrated woodcut series, it took Derain three years and over 35,000 test printings to complete. Videgrain (spelled "Vitdegrain" in the original text) is Pantagruel's great-grandfather, whose name appears only once in the story, in the first chapter of Book Two....(more)" |
