Painted in 1904, ‘Vue des quais’ most likely depicts Le Croisic, the small commune on the coast to the west of Nantes. It is an exquisite example of Jean Metzinger’s early work.

Metzinger moved to Paris the year prior to creating this painting, having previously studied fine art at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in his birthplace of Nantes. It was in those early years in the French capital that he experimented with new artistic styles – such as the Divisionism of ‘Vue des quais’. He exhibited at the Salon d’Automne joined the French avant-garde and entered a new circle of friends including Robert Delaunay and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire who introduced him to Picasso and Braque.

In ‘Vue des quais’ Metzinger exercises a restricted palette with the paint strokes applied in the Divisionist technique. The artist’s singular brushwork is clearly visible on the surface of the canvas. By restricting his palette Metzinger creates a strikingly modern composition in which the eye of the viewer both defines and harmonises the scene.

‘Vue des quais’ has an important provenance having been fist purchased by La Peau de l'Ours, a collective founded by the businessman, critic, and collector André Level. The initiative agreed to invest in contemporary art, buying works by Denis, Dufy, Matisse, van Gogh, Vuillard and Gauguin to name but a few. After ten years and purchasing one hundred and forty five works, the group sold the collection in a series of sales at Hôtel Drouot in Paris with a number of the artists, including Metzinger and Gleizes present. The sale was a huge success and proved the value of the artists and contemporary market. ‘Vue des quais’ was part of these sales alongside a number of works now in museum collections such as Picasso’s ‘Family of Saltimbanques’ in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.