Updated 17 April 2025
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Port of Cassis
| Date | 1884 |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | oil on panel |
| Size（cm） | 34.3 x 51 |
| Inscriptions | Signed lower right: Monticelli |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | Stammégna 965; M805 |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1959-0160 |
After returning to his home town of Marseilles in 1871, Monticelli added the elements of seacoast, harbors and boats to his landscape paintings. This work depicts the landscape of the small harbor town of Cassis near Marseilles, with the cliff face as its foreground, the small inlet lined with yachts cutting across the middle ground, and the town streets of Cassis and their backdrop of hills in the background. Monticelli's works flourished with each passing year, with the brush strokes and use of the palette growing progressively more violent. It is in works such as this that we can see the stark brushwork and thick application of paint which foreshadow Van Gogh and the Fauves. Monticelli probably created this work during the last year of his life when he lived in Cassis. Another almost identical landscape remains, although that work is rather diligently painted. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.84)
Provenance
Purchased by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite, ca. December 1923, as “Petit port de pêche” (Fr. 15,000) [see letter from Léonce Bénédite to Suzuki & Co., dated 18 December 1923, in the Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris (copy 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
- 1924
- Exposition d'art français, San Francisco, 0 1924 - 0 1925
- 1955
- Museo d'Arte Moderno, Roma, 0 1955 - 0 1955, cat. no. 18
- 1959
- Paysages de France, Musée de Rouen, 0 1959 - 0 1959
- 1978
- European Landscape Painting, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Kofu, 3 November 1978 - 15 January 1979, cat. no. 67
- 1996
- The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 92
- 2015
- Cézanne: Pioneer of Modern Art, Pola Museum of Art, Hakone (Kanagawa), 4 April 2015 - 27 September 2015, cat. no. 27, col. repr.
Bibliography
- 1955
- La Collection Matsukata, Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 (Japanese), no. 9, col. 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-218.
- 1969
- Alauzen, A. M.; Ripert, P. Monticelli, sa vie et son œuvre. Paris, 1969, p. 227, fig. 344.
- 1971
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1971 (Japanese), no. 57, repr.
- 1975
- Les cent chefs-d'œuvre du Musée National d'Art Occidental. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1975 (Japanese), no. 23, 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. 36, repr.
- 1979
- The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Catalogue of Paintings. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1979, no. 202, repr.
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1085.
- 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.12, cat. no. 2, 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. 84, 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. 84, col. repr.
- 2015
- Cézanne: pioneer of modern art (exh. cat.). Pola Museum of Art, ed., Hakone(Kanagawa), Pola Museum of Art, Pola Art Foundation, 2015, pp. 88, 150, 154, cat. no. 27, 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. 805, col. repr.