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.
Alongside Matisse, Marquet was also central to the exploration and development of evocative line, and is recognised as an exceptional draughtsman. Private, independent and free-spirited, Marquet always vigorously pursued his own ideas; incorporating the use of linear economy within landscape, in a bold progression away from Matisse’s figurative preoccupations.
Marquet painted landscape in each new location visited as an act of identification with his new environment. He frequently worked from studio windows or balconies to maintain the detachment he required and the high viewpoints he preferred. Always wanting to convey something of the sites attraction to him, works are characterised by a well defined succession of planes leading into depth, and animated components – figures, animals, vehicles, which arrest the eye and imply movement within the space.
This charming house in the countryside was most probably drawn on Marquet’s annual journeys through France, and exhibits beautifully the unique and delicate linear simplicity which characterise his landscapes from this decade.