ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)
Cape Bon / Ras El Dar (637m -2,089ft)
Tunisia
1. In Vue de la Falaise rouge de Sidi Bou Said, Cap Bon et le golfe de Tunis, watercolour,
2. In Vue de la Falaise rouge de Sidi Bou Said, , watercolour
3. In Cap Bon vu de la VIlla Erlanger watercolour
The mountains
Cape Bon (637m -2,089ft) ("Good Cape" in french) refers to either a peninsula in far northeastern Tunisia, also known as Watan el-Kibli (الرأس الطيب), administered as the country's Nabeul Governorate, or the northernmost point on the peninsula, also known as Ras ed-Dar.
Settlements on the peninsula include Nabeul, El Haouaria, Kelibia, Menzel Temime, Korba, and Beni Khalled. Mountains include Kef Bou Krim (237 m -778 ft), Kef er-Rend (637 m - 2,090 ft), Jebel Sidi Abd er-Rahmane (602 m-1,975 ft), Jebel Hofra (421 m -1,381 ft), and Jebel Reba el-Aine (328 m -1,076 ft). Besides Cape Bon, other headlands on the peninsula are Ras Dourdas and Ras el-Fortass on the northern shore, Ras el-Melah on the short eastern shore, and Ras Mostefa and Ras Maamoura on the southern shore. The ruins of the Punic town Kerkouane are also located here. Djebel Mlezza ("Mt Mlessa") has tombs from the time of Agathocles, which were excavated just before the First World War. Cape Bon and the Gulf of Tunis are visible from the little town of Sidi Bou Saïd, like the painter Albert Marqet painted it (see above)
The painter
Albert Marquet was a French painter, associated with the Fauvist movement. He initially became one of the Fauve painters and a lifelong friend of Henri Matisse. In 1890 Marquet moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, where he met Henri Matisse. They were roommates for a time, and they influenced each other's work. Marquet began studies in 1892 at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris under Gustave Moreau, the famous symbolist artist. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. Dismayed by the intense coloration in these paintings, critics reacted by naming the artists the "Fauves", i.e. the wild beasts. Although Marquet painted with the fauves for years, he used less bright and violent colours than the others, and emphasized less intense tones made by mixing complementaries, thus always as colors and never as grays.
From 1907 to his death, Marquet alternated between working in his studio in Paris (a city he painted a lot of times) and many parts of the European coast and in North Africa. He was most involved with Algeria and Algiers and Tunisia. He remained also impressed particularly with Naples and Venice where he painted the sea and boats, accenting the light over water. During his voyages to Germany and Sweden he painted the subjects he usually preferred: river and sea views, ports and ships, but also cityscapes.
Matisse said ; "When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet—and vice versa ... I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him".
by Francis Rousseau
