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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the critical catalogue of Albert Marquet's paintings being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.
Marquet was born in 1875 in the great port city of Bordeaux. Although he left Bordeaux at fifteen-years-old in order to pursue his artistic career in Paris, the motif of the port, with its grand structures, play of light on water and bustling commerce, retained an enduring fascination for Marquet. When he was not scouring the quais of Paris for a subject for a painting, he was often travelling around the ports of Europe and North Africa.
It was only in the summer of 1936, at the age of 61, that Marquet first visited Venice, a port that had fascinated leading artists for centuries. He stayed first at the Hotel Danieli, but soon moved to the smaller, family run Pensione Bucintoro. The four windows of his room overlooked the lagoon and the Riva degli Schiavoni and it was from here, to escape the crowds and the summer heat, that Marquet would paint. His wife Marcelle, who had to leave Marquet to attend to family matters, received cards and letters from the artist describing his working methods during this time. She recalls how Marquet '…worked early in the morning, often at sunrise and towards the end of the day, and the times when the light softens, to escape both the tourists and the intense summer heat.' (M. Marquet, Venise, Paris 1953, p. 9).
Marquet’s Venetian views combine several of his pre-occupations – the sea, boats and architecture – whilst allowing him to work with the beautiful and unique light of Venice that had attracted Canaletto, Guardi, Turner and Monet before him. Marquet’s treatment of light was inspired by, and yet different to, that of Monet. As Raymond Cogniat has written ‘There is no doubt that Marquet, like the Impressionists, sought to understand the visual subtleties of atmosphere and to capture them on canvas, but whereas the Impressionists achieved this through an optical imbalance in paint, which reproduces the imbalance of light in nature, Marquet, in contrast, was able to mobilise and translate into solid matter the most subtle nuances of light and the most fugitive of moments.’ (R. Cogniat, Albert Marquet, exh. cat., London, 1972).
Marquet was born in 1875 in the great port city of Bordeaux. Although he left Bordeaux at fifteen-years-old in order to pursue his artistic career in Paris, the motif of the port, with its grand structures, play of light on water and bustling commerce, retained an enduring fascination for Marquet. When he was not scouring the quais of Paris for a subject for a painting, he was often travelling around the ports of Europe and North Africa.
It was only in the summer of 1936, at the age of 61, that Marquet first visited Venice, a port that had fascinated leading artists for centuries. He stayed first at the Hotel Danieli, but soon moved to the smaller, family run Pensione Bucintoro. The four windows of his room overlooked the lagoon and the Riva degli Schiavoni and it was from here, to escape the crowds and the summer heat, that Marquet would paint. His wife Marcelle, who had to leave Marquet to attend to family matters, received cards and letters from the artist describing his working methods during this time. She recalls how Marquet '…worked early in the morning, often at sunrise and towards the end of the day, and the times when the light softens, to escape both the tourists and the intense summer heat.' (M. Marquet, Venise, Paris 1953, p. 9).
Marquet’s Venetian views combine several of his pre-occupations – the sea, boats and architecture – whilst allowing him to work with the beautiful and unique light of Venice that had attracted Canaletto, Guardi, Turner and Monet before him. Marquet’s treatment of light was inspired by, and yet different to, that of Monet. As Raymond Cogniat has written ‘There is no doubt that Marquet, like the Impressionists, sought to understand the visual subtleties of atmosphere and to capture them on canvas, but whereas the Impressionists achieved this through an optical imbalance in paint, which reproduces the imbalance of light in nature, Marquet, in contrast, was able to mobilise and translate into solid matter the most subtle nuances of light and the most fugitive of moments.’ (R. Cogniat, Albert Marquet, exh. cat., London, 1972).