Updated 14 May 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
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
- 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.
- 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.