Les Sables d'Olonne|Pierre-Albert Marquet |Search Collection

Updated 05 March 2025

Currently not on display

Share
×
Enlarge
Zoom
Print

Currently not on display

Pierre-Albert Marquet

Bordeaux, 1875 - Paris, 1947

Les Sables d'Olonne

Date	1921
Materials and Techniques	oil on canvas
Size（cm）	60.5 x 73
Inscriptions	Signed lower right: Marquet
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	M706
Category	Paintings
Collection Number	P.1959-0126

Marquet took a number of trips during the 1920s and the 1930s. This scenic beach, Les Sables d'Olonne, is about sixty kilometers south of the mouth of the Loire River and occupies one corner of France's Atlantic coastline. This landscape probably evoked a sense of nostalgia in Marquet, who was born and raised in the town of Bordeaux near the sea at the mouth of the river. Throughout his career Marquet used a high vantage point looking down at the depicted scene. His landscapes usually envision the formalization of Marquet's relationship with the outside world as seen from inside a window, a view familiar to a young man with debilitating sensitivities. Marquet's works, particularly his palette, differed from the strident colors of the other artists of the Fauves. Marquet was 46 years old in 1921 and had fully developed his own style characterized by calm sparkling light, compositions with diagonally receding depth, and introspectively marvelous brushwork. The color of the sea with its light semi-transparent blue green stroked with ash gray was Marquet's particular shade for the sea. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.112)

Provenance

Galerie E. Druet, Paris, as “Les Sables d'Olonne”, no. 9621 [gallery label on the reverse]; purchased from the above by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe, ca. December 1921, as “Les Sables d'Olonne, la jetée temps gris” (Fr. 8,300) [see letter from Galerie E. Druet to Léonce Bénédite, dated 10 December 1921 and letter from Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., 27 December 1921, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copies in NMWA curatorial file)]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1958: Paysages de France, Musée de Rouen, 0 1958 - 0 1958, cat. no. 131, pl. 8
1960: The Masterpieces of the Ex-Matsukata Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 14 May 1960 - 10 July 1960, cat. no. 59
1962: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Hakutsuru Museum, Kobe, 20 October 1962 - 5 November 1962, P-181
1962: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Art Gallery of Aichi Prefecture, Nagoya, 17 November 1962 - 9 December 1962, cat. no. 33 (当館記録による）
1963: The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Shimane Prefectural Museum, Matsue, 5 October 1963 - 20 October 1963, P-181
1963: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume, 26 October 1963 - 10 November 1963, P-181
1964: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Nakajima Sports Center of Hokkaido Prefecture, 22 August 1964 - 13 September 1964, cat. no. 53
1966: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Wakayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Wakayama, 15 October 1966 - 4 November 1966, cat. no. 41
1966: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Oita Prefecture, Oita, 12 November 1966 - 27 November 1966, cat. no. 41
1967: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Kagoshima Municipal Museum of Art, 28 April 1967 - 21 May 1967, cat. no. 41
1968: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Niigata Prefectural Museum, Niigata, 14 July 1968 - 4 August 1968, cat. no. 50
1968: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Hiroshima, 26 October 1968 - 17 November 1968, cat. no. 50
1969: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Ibaraki Prefecture, Mito, 22 November 1969 - 21 December 1969, cat. no. 49
1970: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Nagasaki Prefectural Museum, Nagasaki, 18 October 1970 - 15 November 1970, cat. no. 34
1971: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Toyama Prefectural Center, Museum of Art, Toyama, 2 October 1971 - 24 October 1971, cat. no. 31
1972: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Shinano Museum of Art of Nagano Prefecture, Nagano, 12 October 1972 - 5 November 1972, cat. no. 33
1973: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Kochi Prefecture, Kochi, 28 October 1973 - 25 November 1973, cat. no. 36
1974: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Cultural Center of Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, 13 October 1974 - 10 November 1974, cat. no. 35
1974: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Saga Prefectural Museum, Saga, 16 November 1974 - 1 December 1974, cat. no. 35
1975: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Yamagata Museum, Yamagata, 1 November 1975 - 30 November 1975, cat. no. 35
1976: [Tour Exhibition] The Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, The Tottori Prefectural Museum, Tottori, 9 October 1976 - 7 November 1976, cat. no. 51
1978: European Landscape Painting, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 14 September 1978 - 26 October 1978, cat. no. 92, repr.
1978: European Landscape Painting, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Kofu, 3 November 1978 - 15 January 1979, cat. no. 85
1989: The French Modern Painting, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Miyakonojo City Museum, 15 April 1989 - 14 May 1989, cat. no. 25, col. repr.
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Ibara Municipal Denchu Art Museum, 10 April 1990 - 23 April 1990, cat. no. 29
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Cultural Center of Kagawa Prefecture, Takamatsu, 28 April 1990 - 13 May 1990, cat. no. 29
1990: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Cultural Center of Toyota City, 19 May 1990 - 3 June 1990, cat. no. 29
1991: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Hachinohe City Museum of Art, 28 September 1991 - 27 October 1991, cat. no. 27
1991: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Tendo City Museum of Art, Tendo, 1 November 1991 - 24 November 1991, cat. no. 27
1992: [Tour Exhibition] The French Modern Art, from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Urasoe Art Museum, 3 November 1992 - 7 December 1992, cat. no. 27
2016: The Old Matsukata Collection: Reenvisioning the Dream, Kobe City Museum, 17 September 2016 - 27 November 2016, cat. no. 58, col. repr.

Bibliography

1955: La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 28, col. repr.
1957: Sandoz, M. Signac et Marquet à La Rochelle, Les Sables-d'Olonne, La Chaume, Croix-de-Vie. Dibutade. IV. 1957 , pp. 26-27.
1958: Paysages de France de l'impressionnisme à nos jours (exh. cat.). Rouen, Musée des Beaux Arts. Rouen, Le Musée, [1958], p. 42, cat. no. 131, repr.
1961: Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-181.
1971: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 42, repr.
1975: Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 77, repr.
1978: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1978 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 81, repr.
1979: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 163, repr.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 996.
1992: The French Modern Art, from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, ed. Okinawa, Urasoe Art Museum, 1992, p.37, cat. no. 27, col. repr
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 112, col. repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 112, col. repr.
2016: The Old Matsukata Collection: Reenvisioning the Dream (exh. cat.). Kobe City Museum, ed. [Kobe], Executive Committee of the Old Matsukata Collection, 2016, pp. 100, 262, cat. no. 58, col. repr.
2018: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 706, col. repr.

Page top