ALBERT MARQUET | L'Estaque

Daniel Carasso, France (sale: Piasa, Paris, 19th March 2010, lot 94)
Richard Green Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014

London, Richard Green Gallery, La Vie en Rose. French Paintings 1840-1940, 2011, no. 24, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

The canvas is lined. Examination under UV light reveals some scattered areas of retouching to the extreme edges, and some further scattered flecks to the upper left quadrant, the boat in the foreground and the white pigment in the centre of the composition. There is a further thin line of retouching (approx. 7cm) to the water to the lower right quadrant. The colours are bright and fresh and this work is in overall good condition.
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Painted circa 1916-18, L’Estaque is an exquisite example of Marquet’s remarkable ability to distill the particular qualities of marine light and atmosphere into a painting. Depicting the charming port of L'Estaque, the present work features boats bobbing gently at anchor in a sunny harbour. L’Estaque, a small French fishing village on the bay of Marseilles, captured the imagination of artists and writers alike. Paul Cézanne painted a series of views of the water and explored the luxuriant rewards of painting en plein air while directly soaking up the beauty of the bay and its vital atmosphere. Pierre-Auguste Renoir raved about the village: ‘How beautiful it is! It’s certainly the most beautiful place in the world and not yet inhabited […] there are only some fishermen and the mountains […] so there are no walls, no properties or few […] here I have the true countryside at my doorstep’ (quoted in John House, Renoir, London, 1985, p. 233). Émile Zola, too, put pen to paper to express the impact that L’Estaque had on him: ‘the countryside is superb […] Nothing equals the wild majesty of those gorges hollowed out between the hills, narrow paths twisting at the bottom of an abyss, arid slopes covered with pines and with walls the colour of rust and blood […] when this dried-out country gets thoroughly wet, it takes on colours […] of great violence: the red earth bleeds, the pines have an emerald reflection, the rocks are bright with the whiteness of fresh laundry’ (quoted in John Rewald, Cézanne, A Biography, New York, 1986, p. 93).

As such, Marquet followed in a long line of distinguished creative figures who were inspired by L’Estaque. The village, which was nestled between sea and mountain, provided the perfect opportunity for the artist to experiment with his supreme handling of colour and form. The jutting boat in the foreground of the work acts as a pathway into the world of the bay, directing the viewer’s gaze onward and into the horizon, creating a liberating sense of space despite the bustle of boats and reflections. The strong characteristic brick-coloured pastel of the rooftops and their reflections enliven the natural stone browns and greens of the landscape while the impression of spontaneity achieved with Marquet’s energetic brushwork for sea and sky evokes the liveliness of the great outdoors. This work invites us to enjoy Marquet’s own personal vision of the picturesque landscape, where he found water, land, mountain and sky converging in harmonious majesty.



This work is accompanied by an Attestation of Inclusion from the Wildenstein Institute, and it will be included in the forthcoming Marquet Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.