Dear Friends,
For this new “minute”, let’s take a stroll along the quays of Paris in the company of Albert Marquet.
Do you come with us ?
Françoise and Florence Chibret-Plaussu
A stroll along the quays of Paris with Albert Marquet
Like Monet, Marquet painted series, and while water lilies are indissociable from Monet, likewise – the Seine and its quays are indissociable from Marquet.
Very early on, Paris captured the attention of this artist from Bordeaux. He painted his own version of Paris throughout his life at all times and under all weather conditions from the window of his successive workshops:
- In 1905, he moved to 25 quai des Grands Augustins
- In 1908 Marquet used the workshop that his friend Matisse has just vacated at 19 quai Saint-Michel
- Then in 1930 on the 5th floor of 1 rue Dauphine, at the corner of the Quai des Grands Augustins, from where our oil is painted with a plunging view of the Pont Neuf and the Samaritaine.
The Samaritaine building had already modified the banks of the Seine. Attentive to modern life and the changes of his city, Marquet integrated this monument with its facade in pure Art Deco style. However, he was careful to erase all details that could break with the harmony of his composition.
Marquet assumed this view day and night with these two important canvases that appear in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne.
His many journeys always brought him back to Paris, his first love.
In this painting, the atmosphere is muffled, faded and extremely tender. There is a feeling of harmony, of a union of heaven, water and earth.
A solid construction lies behind the simplicity of the composition.
With a range reduced to a few tones, it synthesizes the landscape and the tingling of the Pont Neuf to impose the essential.
Marquet had a new and minimalist look. It is in this sense that we can call him a modern painter.
As the art critic Léon Werth rightly noted
‘This painting obliges us to be silent’.
You may continue to discover this artist in the gallery.
Albert Marquet
“Vue du Pont-Neuf à Paris”
Vue du Pont-Neuf à Paris
1938
Oil on canvas
46 x 60 cm
Signed lower left
Provenance
– Collection Dampierre, France – Private collection, Paris
Bibliography
– This work will be included in the forthcoming Albert Marquet Digital Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Price upon request. Contact us.
