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Lot Essay
This painting will be included in the catalogue critique of Albert Marquet's paintings being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.
Le Pont Neuf was painted at the same time as a group of Albert Marquet's paintings were exhibited in the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, alongside works by Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and the other artists whose intense colourism earned them the critic's denunciation as 'fauves', or wild beasts. Sharing its palette and bird's-eye view with Quai du Louvre et le Pont Neuf, 1906 (fig. 1; Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. GMNZI), the painting is
an example of Marquet's particular contribution to the Fauve movement: the olive greens, silvery blues, violets and ochre tones are more subtle than the palette of primary colours from which his companions in the movement drew, but they are no less intense, due to his practice of mixing strong complementary colours in order to produce these delicate but vibrant tones, augmented by the black lines that outline the bridge and silhouettes of passers-by.
Whilst artists such as André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck painted the same view with colours little based in reality, Marquet's palette allowed for intermittent explosions of colour but retain a firmer grounding in the view before him. In the present painting, that view is of the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge across the Seine, and belongs to the artist's 'Paris Suite' series; although the city was a subject which would occupy Marquet throughout his life, it was of particular importance in his early career between 1900 and 1910, when he spent little time outside the capital. He found his inspiration in the river Seine, its quais, bridges and crowds, whether in sunshine, rain, summer or winter, and it was against this paradoxically familiar and traditional background that he executed the most innovative works in his oeuvre.
Le Pont Neuf was painted at the same time as a group of Albert Marquet's paintings were exhibited in the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, alongside works by Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and the other artists whose intense colourism earned them the critic's denunciation as 'fauves', or wild beasts. Sharing its palette and bird's-eye view with Quai du Louvre et le Pont Neuf, 1906 (fig. 1; Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. no. GMNZI), the painting is
an example of Marquet's particular contribution to the Fauve movement: the olive greens, silvery blues, violets and ochre tones are more subtle than the palette of primary colours from which his companions in the movement drew, but they are no less intense, due to his practice of mixing strong complementary colours in order to produce these delicate but vibrant tones, augmented by the black lines that outline the bridge and silhouettes of passers-by.
Whilst artists such as André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck painted the same view with colours little based in reality, Marquet's palette allowed for intermittent explosions of colour but retain a firmer grounding in the view before him. In the present painting, that view is of the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge across the Seine, and belongs to the artist's 'Paris Suite' series; although the city was a subject which would occupy Marquet throughout his life, it was of particular importance in his early career between 1900 and 1910, when he spent little time outside the capital. He found his inspiration in the river Seine, its quais, bridges and crowds, whether in sunshine, rain, summer or winter, and it was against this paradoxically familiar and traditional background that he executed the most innovative works in his oeuvre.