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 rigourous methodology for art.
In 1920, weary of cold Parisian winters and on the advice of Matisse, Marquet headed to North Africa, to visit Morocco and Algeria. Marquet was fascinated by the green trees, minaret skylines and lively ports, and found the intense light and dense shadows perfect for creating the modernist reductions of colour, tone and form which characterized his oeuvre. After marrying in 1923, Marquet and his Algerian born wife Marcelle, spent nearly every winter in North Africa. Intrigued yet often unnerved by the foreignness of the place Marquet turned to his wife to act as intermediary for interpreting language and customs. Marquet’s work of the following decade expresses an extra dimension; a softening and appreciation of his wife’s happiness at the familiar surroundings, and an assimilation of their overall contentment.
Alongside Matisse, Marquet was central to the exploration and development of evocative line, and is recognised as an exceptional draughtsman. A great observer of everyday life, this drawing of a North African family exhibits beautifully the unique linear simplicity and figurative realism which characterise his oeuvre; capturing eloquently the atmosphere and essence of each person though the scarcest of touches and gestures.