Lot 3239 - A201 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 01. July 2022, 05.00 PM
CHARLES CAMOIN
(Marseille 1879–1965 Paris)
Voilier à quai dans le port de Marseille. Circa 1905.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: Ch. Camoin.
54 × 65 cm.
We would like to thank the Archives Camoin for confirming the authenticity of the work, February 2022.
Provenance:
- Franz Edouard Lüthy collection, Le Havre, probably acquired directly from the artist around 1905.
- Swiss private collection, by descent from the above over several generations to the the present owners and since its acquisition owned by the same family.
Exhibited:
- Le Havre 1908, Exposition Cercle de l'Art Moderne, Le Havre, June 1908, no. 99 (titled "Port de Marseille").
- Paris 2012/13, Le Cercle de l'Art Moderne. Collectionneurs d'avant-garde au Havre, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 19.9.2012–6.1.2013, no. 75 (with ill. cat. p. 195).
Charles Camoin's affiliation with the Fauve painters stemmed from his friendship with Henri Matisse and Albert Marquet. Inspired by the Fauvist explosions of colour and influenced by Cézanne, with whom he was in close correspondence, Camoin soon discovered his distinctive impressionistic style. Between 1904 and 1906, Camoin travelled with Manguin and Marquet along the southern coast of France to capture impressions of the light-filled, vibrant and intensely atmospheric coastal landscapes. The present painting "Voilier à quai dans le port de Marseille" is a significant work from that style-defining period and brilliantly demonstrates Camoin's unique Fauvist style. The artist's use of pastel colours, as seen in the rendering of the city's silhouette, reveals a nuanced treatment of colour tones. Unlike his Fauvist colleagues, who favoured strong, expressionist contrasts of colour, Camoin relies here on a modelled aesthetic that brings the effects of light to the fore. The deep azure of the water in the harbour contrasts with the sfumato handling of the violet-mauve shimmering sky above, thus recalling impressionistic models.
The two paintings "Nu couché au miroir" (lot 3238) and the present work "Voilier à quai dans le port de Marseille" once belonged to Franz Edouard Lüthy (1847-1919), a coffee merchant from Switzerland who lived in Le Havre. He was a member of the "Société des Amis des Arts du Havre”, and together with renowned collectors such as Charles-Auguste Marande, Pieter Van der Velde, Georges Dussueil and Olivier Senn, co-founded the "Cercle de l'art moderne" in 1906. This association of business magnates, members of the city's fashionable society and contemporary artists was dedicated to promoting and exhibiting painters who were still local at that time, such as Braque, Dufy and Friesz. Guillaume Apollinaire, Claude Debussy and Frantz Jourdain supported the group, which was associated with the newly founded Salon d'Automne from the beginning. From 1906 to 1910, the Cercle organised annual exhibitions featuring works by the young Fauves, including Matisse, Derain, van Dongen, Vlamick, Manguin and, not least, Camoin. It was thanks to their commitment that Le Havre was considered to be the pulsating centre of the burgeoning artistic movement known as Fauvism. Both works were probably acquired by Lüthy directly from Camoin and have remained the property of his family to the present day, roughly 120 years later.
CHF 20 000 / 30 000 | (€ 20 620 / 30 930)
Sold for CHF 116 200 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.