Albert Marquet was an artist of prominence in the Fauve period from 1905 onwards, when he painted with intense, pure pigments in the exhibition that was to change the course of art history at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, in 1905. He was one of the Fauves, or ‘wild Beasts’ that exaggerated colour to such an extent that the timid public of the day left the exhibition truly appalled.
Marquet is as famous for his vast city views of Paris as he is for his earlier works, he spent time in both the foggy centre of fin de siècle Paris as well as the sunnier climes of northern Africa. No matter what the landscape Marquet always managed to capture the ambience of a place through simple coloration. Many of his later landscapes show a pioneering sense of openness and warped perspective, more like photography with a wide angle lens than painting.
The present work is a gorgeous seascape that encapsulates the icy beauty of Montreux, Switzerland at the base of in the Alps on Lake Geneva.