Marquet alongside friends and fellow students at the Atelier Moreau; Matisse, Rouault and Camoin, was one of the original Fauve artists, exhibiting at the scandalous Salon d’Automne in 1905. Positioned...
Marquet alongside friends and fellow students at the Atelier Moreau; Matisse, Rouault and Camoin, was one of the original Fauve artists, exhibiting at the scandalous Salon d’Automne in 1905. Positioned in the stylistic wake of Impressionism and teetering on the brink of Modernity, he played a pivotal role within Post-Impressionist progressions towards a more coherent and rigorous methodology for art.
Having assimilated and interpreted the aggressive fauve palette, Marquet worked towards more modernist reductions of tone and form. Captivated by water, Marquet adored traveling and used aquatic scenes as the principal subjects of his oeuvre, with motifs of ports, sailing boats, beaches and bathers featuring prominently. Water became almost a tool for abstraction, enabling him to develop his own intuitive minimalism, capturing the essence of a scene from the scarcest of touches.
Alongside Matisse, Marquet was central to the exploration and development of evocative line, and is recognised as an exceptional draughtsman. A great voyeur of everyday life, figurative works such as this beach scene, reoccur consistently throughout Marquet’s travels. Most probably drawn in the south of France, Marquet notes here the characteristics that determine physiognomy through his acute observation and rapidly sketched impressions. His unique suggestiveness and economy define and capture each person’s character though the slightest gestures or details.