Birth Year : 1875
Death Year : 1947
Country : France
Albert Marquet was born in Bordeaux, France. He was both very young
and very poor when he went to Paris to study at the School of Decorative
Arts under Gustave Moreau. Matisse was
also studying there at the time and, in order to earn money, the two artists
decorated the halls for the Paris Exposition of 1900 in Moreau's Art Nouveau
style. Associated with Matisse in the
1903 salons, Marquet was considered a Fauve, although in reality he was
rebelling against Impressionism. For him, color was never an end or a means
in itself. Once his career was safely launched, Marquet spent the rest
of his life alternately at his studio on the Quai St. Michel in Paris,
where he painted the Seine and its bridges, or in various seaports all
over Europe and North Africa. He traveled constantly and whenever the spirit
moved him, staying with painter friends until he was bored and then leaving
as unexpectedly as he had arrived.
Extremely independent and very shy, Marquet lived simply and quietly,
painting as he liked, with no regard for public taste and refusing all
public honors. Marquet's break with Fauvism was perhaps the most complete
of the entire group. Although previously he had painted portraits, figure
studies, and landscapes with figures, when he returned to France after
a trip with Matisse to Morocco in 1912,
he devoted himself entirely to landscapes, repeating the same subjects
and presenting them at different times of day and during different seasons.
An excellent draughtsman, Marquet worked in simple, rapid lines that were
reduced to the minimum necessary for compositional structure. He then applied
soft, limpid color in finely and delicately shaded tones that at first
glance seem to be monotones. Marquet was a realist in the tradition of
Poussin, Corot,
and Courbet, and a great lover of nature.
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Albert
Marquet
Beach
of Fecamp
Albert
Marquet
Les
Sables D'olonne
Books about Albert Marquet |
