ALBERT MARQUET (1875–1947)
DJebel Boukornine (546 m -1791 ft)
Tunisia
In Sidi Bou Saïd-palmier, oil on canvas, private collection
The mountain
DJebel Boukornine (جبل بوقرنين), also spelled Jebel Bou Kornine or
Mount Bou Kornine, is a 576-meter mountain in northern Tunisia,
overlooking the Gulf of Tunis and Hammam Lif city.
It consists of
folded and faulted outcrops of Jurassic limestone. Its name "bou
kornine" comes from Tunisian Arabic meaning "the one with two horns",
originally from the punic language as "ba'al kornine", meaning "lord
with two horns". It owes its name to the two highlights of altitude 576
and 493 meters at the top. During the times of ancient Carthage, the
mountain was considered sacred and religious rituals were conducted
there.
The massif is part of Boukornine National Park, covering area
of 1939 ha and protecting many species of plants and animals. The
mountain slopes are covered Aleppo pine and cedar. Djebel Ressas about
30 km to the southwest is a taller peak at 795 m.
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 Décoratifs,
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".
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2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
