Albert Marquet
The year 1920 marked a turning point in Marquet's professional and domestic life. After having recovered from poor health the previous year while working in Paris and Marseilles, he left in search of a warmer climate as well as new subject matter to inspire him. He traveled in January from Marseilles to Algiers. Shortly after his arrival, he wrote to Matisse, George Besson (his biographer), and others telling them of his new environs. Armed with a letter of introduction he met Marcelle Martinet; she took him on long hikes in and around Algiers and they were subsequently married in 1923.
Madame Marquet recalled the beginning of their married life together, a period that was punctuated by frequent travel, almost always to places by busy waterways including harbors, ports, seas, and the Seine: “In 1923 we started our life together with a six-months stay in a little Tunisian town. We lived simply, dividing our time between work and walks in one of the most beautiful spots in the world—white and blue houses, hanging from cliffs between sky and water—a place so beautiful that Marquet never wanted to return to it, saying there was nothing left of add to his impression."
Madame Albert Marquet Reading, painted in 1924, portrays the artist’s wife on the balcony overlooking the Bay of Algiers. Madame Marquet wrote: “His authority manifested itself once he began to work; I noticed it when I watched him paint, particularly when he did my portrait. Once he began to paint, everything ceased to exist except he and his subject. He proceeded with certainty, as though guided by an interior force. He eliminated the superficial, he accentuated the essential. What conferred to him that solid authority was the fact that he did what he had to do; he could not do otherwise. No fashion, no fad could get hold over him.”
See you tomorrow—in July!
P.S. Let's go on a trip! Here are artists’ beloved travel destinations as seen through their art. <3