Title: Porquerolles
Date: 1938
Medium: Oil on canvas
Signed: lower left: Marquet
lower right: Marquet
Credit Line: Purchased, 1967 (Shaw Fund)
Object Number: NGI.1822
DescriptionThe Fauve painter Albert Marquet was a close friend of Henri Matisse. This picture is one of a group of seascapes that he painted on the picturesque island of Porquerolles. He stayed there in the late 1930s, before moving to Algeria for the duration of the Second World War. The high viewpoint suggests that Marquet may have painted the scene from an upstairs window or balcony. The bird’s-eye perspective, reduced colouring, and graphic black lines reveal his keen interest in Japanese art. Matisse said of Marquet - ‘He is our Hokusai’.
ProvenanceMadame Marquet collection; sold to Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 1963; J.H.C. Bibby collection, London; Sotheby's, New York, 19 May 1966, no.17; Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 1966; where purchased 1967.
Exhibition HistoryAlbert Marquet, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, June-July 1959; Musées de Metz, August-September, 1959
French 19th and 20th Century Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland: Corot to Picasso, Daimaru Museum, Tokyo, 5 September-17 September 1996; Daimaru Museum, Kyoto, 10 October-22 October 1996; Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi, 26 October-2 December 1996; Daimaru Museum, Umeda,Osaka, 22 January-9 February 1997; Aomori Municpal Gallery of Art, Aomori, 2 April-20 April 1997
Label TextThe Fauve painter Albert Marquet was a close friend of Henri Matisse. This picture is one of a group of seascapes that he painted on the picturesque island of Porquerolles. He stayed there in the late 1930s, before moving to Algeria for the duration of the Second World War. The high viewpoint suggests that Marquet may have painted the scene from an upstairs window or balcony. The bird’s-eye perspective, reduced colouring, and graphic black lines reveal his interest in Japanese art. Matisse said of Marquet - 'He is our Hokusai’.