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ALBERT MARQUET (1875-1947) Two boats in Marseille or Vieux-P…
See original version (French)
67
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ALBERT MARQUET (1875-1947) Two boats in Marseille or Vieux-P…
See original version (French)
Estimate €30,000 - €50,000
Voluntary lot
Description
ALBERT MARQUET (1875-1947)
Two boats in Marseille or Vieux-Port, winter, Marseille, ca. 1916-1918
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left
(Re-staining and small old restoration)
46 x 55 cm - 18 1/8 x 21 5/8 in.
A certificate from Madame Marcelle Marquet, dated 13 July 1965, will be given to the buyer.
This work will be included in the Digital Catalogue Raisonné Albert Marquet currently being prepared by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute. A certificate of inclusion will be given to the buyer.
Oil on lined canvas, signed lower left
Provenance :
Palazzoli Collection
Collection Marcelle Marquet, France (acquired from her through Maurice Laffaille in 1963)
Knoedler & Co Gallery, New York (on deposit from the latter in 1964)
Marcelle Maquet Collection, France
Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the latter in 1965)
Private collection, France
Private collection, France (by descent)
Bibliography :
George Besson, Marquet, Paris: Crés, 1929, reproduced on pl. 33 (titled Marseille. Pluie and dated 1916)
Exhibition(s) :
Exhibition A. Marquet (1875-1947), Geneva, Galerie du Théâtre, 3 November-14 December 1967, no. 15 (titled Marseille and dated 1920)
Marquet, New York, Knoedler Galleries, 6-29 May 1964, n°23 (titled Boat in Marseille or Two Cargo Boats in Marseille)
Albert Marquet: Peintre français, Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 10 January-2 February 1964; Ottawa, National Gallery, 13 February-8 March 1964 and Quebec, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 20 March-8 April 1964
Notice:
"The First World War broke out on 3 August 1914. Marquet had just sent Manguin a photograph showing him, Matisse and Camoin on horseback in front of an airship. He wrote on the back of the postcard: "As you can see from this card, we have just formed a squadron to defend France. I don't think you will hesitate for a minute to join us and that we will be the first to enter Berlin". But the jokes soon died down. Having reformed, Matisse and Marquet tried to take part in the conflict and went to consult the collector Marcel Sembat, then a Socialist deputy. He replied: "Paint. No one in this field can replace you". Shortly before the Battle of the Marne, Marquet went with Matisse to Collioure, but it was in Marseille that he finally settled for most of the war years. He had first gone there in 1905 with Camoin, who had introduced him to the city's red-light districts, particularly the rue Bouterie, which he painted so often. Marquet first lived in Louis Frésier's studio, before renting Eugène Montfort's on the Quai de Rive-Neuve, opposite the Town Hall. He painted Marseilles, as he did Paris, in all seasons and in all weathers. He always chose to paint landscapes in the climatic conditions of the moment. During the war years, he painted a major series of views of the port of Marseille. He loved being immersed in the hustle and bustle of life and the incessant comings and goings of boats, which infinitely altered the landscape. Le Port de Marseille, circa 1916 (Musée Cantini, Marseille) was painted from the Hôtel Beauvau, where Matisse lived. His interest lay in colour contrasts and the development of a precise construction scheme. The silhouette of the transporter bridge, the surrounding architectural mass and the boats allowed him to structure his composition around a play of verticals and horizontals. In Le Vieux port de Marseille, 1916 (Larock-Granoff collection, Paris), his attention is caught by the presence of two boats alongside the quay. The luminous mass of the boat in the centre of the painting radiates throughout the composition. To avoid distracting the eye from the scene, he deliberately reduced all the surrounding details to their essentials. The houses are nothing more than blind parallelepipeds, and the quay in the foreground is left virtually deserted. In 1918, in Port de Marseille dans la brume (L'Annonciade, Musée de Saint-Tropez), he tried to suggest, with a minimum of pictorial means, the port bathed in a misty atmosphere. He wanted to convey the winter climate, where the architectural forms, which melt into the fluidity of the pictorial material, are simply evoked by a few lines and the modulation of wide planes. This subtlety of colour values gives the painting its poetic dimension.
Jean-Paul Monery, "Journal de bord dans le Midi", in. Albert Marquet, Itinéraires maritimes, cat. exhibition, Paris, Musée national de la Marine, 15 October 2008-2 February 2009, Paris: Thalia Édition, 2008, pp. 104-105
See original version (French)
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