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Lot Essay
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.
Painted in 1906, Le Havre, le bassin dates from the height of Albert Marquet’s Fauvist period, and his depictions of the ports of Normandy are among his greatest contribution to this radical movement. The flashes of incandescent colour in the waving Tricolore, the water, boats and the sun-dappled buildings perfectly demonstrate the vivid energy of the Fauve palette, with the thick brushstrokes of bold, unmixed colour being deftly deployed in order to capture light effects, as well as the contrasting shaded foreground area, which serves to heighten the contrasts of the luminous background. A friend of Matisse since his youth, Marquet was one of the first artists to create pictures in such a way, as was demonstrated by the so-called Nu fauve now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, which was painted as early as 1898, acting as a precursor to the movement. Marquet, committed to conveying some of the sensation of the artist through the use of colours, maintained an interest in colourism and form that is evident in the composition of Le Havre, le bassin, and indeed in his selection of a raised vantage point. Where artists such as Derain and Vlaminck would fill scenes of the Seine at Chatou with colours that conveyed their enthusiasm but were little based in reality, Marquet allowed his palette to explode at times, but retained a firmer grounding in the view before him, selecting subjects that already contained vivid colour. This explains his interest in flags and bunting, as can be seen in Le Havre, le bassin, as well as the light-struck houses of a port in high summer.
The motif of the port, with its architecture, people, bustling movement, and play of light and reflections, held an enduring fascination for Marquet and he returned to this subject on numerous occasions throughout his career. Following his involvement with the notorious Salon d'Automne of 1905, in which he and his fellow exhibitors had been labelled as the 'Fauves', or ‘Wild Beasts’, Marquet visited Le Havre on several occasions. In 1906, the year that he painted Le Havre, le bassin, he spent the summer travelling round the ports of Normandy, in particular Le Havre, with his friend and fellow Fauve, Raoul Dufy. Here, often working side by side, the pair consolidated their own ideas regarding the potential of bold, pure colour. Pursuing similar motifs that the Impressionists, in particular Monet, had captured in the decades prior, Marquet radically reconsidered these views, depicting them from striking, often elevated viewpoints with slabs of unmixed, vibrant colour, as the present work exemplifies.
Painted in 1906, Le Havre, le bassin dates from the height of Albert Marquet’s Fauvist period, and his depictions of the ports of Normandy are among his greatest contribution to this radical movement. The flashes of incandescent colour in the waving Tricolore, the water, boats and the sun-dappled buildings perfectly demonstrate the vivid energy of the Fauve palette, with the thick brushstrokes of bold, unmixed colour being deftly deployed in order to capture light effects, as well as the contrasting shaded foreground area, which serves to heighten the contrasts of the luminous background. A friend of Matisse since his youth, Marquet was one of the first artists to create pictures in such a way, as was demonstrated by the so-called Nu fauve now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, which was painted as early as 1898, acting as a precursor to the movement. Marquet, committed to conveying some of the sensation of the artist through the use of colours, maintained an interest in colourism and form that is evident in the composition of Le Havre, le bassin, and indeed in his selection of a raised vantage point. Where artists such as Derain and Vlaminck would fill scenes of the Seine at Chatou with colours that conveyed their enthusiasm but were little based in reality, Marquet allowed his palette to explode at times, but retained a firmer grounding in the view before him, selecting subjects that already contained vivid colour. This explains his interest in flags and bunting, as can be seen in Le Havre, le bassin, as well as the light-struck houses of a port in high summer.
The motif of the port, with its architecture, people, bustling movement, and play of light and reflections, held an enduring fascination for Marquet and he returned to this subject on numerous occasions throughout his career. Following his involvement with the notorious Salon d'Automne of 1905, in which he and his fellow exhibitors had been labelled as the 'Fauves', or ‘Wild Beasts’, Marquet visited Le Havre on several occasions. In 1906, the year that he painted Le Havre, le bassin, he spent the summer travelling round the ports of Normandy, in particular Le Havre, with his friend and fellow Fauve, Raoul Dufy. Here, often working side by side, the pair consolidated their own ideas regarding the potential of bold, pure colour. Pursuing similar motifs that the Impressionists, in particular Monet, had captured in the decades prior, Marquet radically reconsidered these views, depicting them from striking, often elevated viewpoints with slabs of unmixed, vibrant colour, as the present work exemplifies.