A school of fine art was established in Marseille in 1752 and in the early days it promoted the work of regional artists whose principal subjects were topographical views and portraiture. The port-city was always open to more exotic influences from North Africa and beyond and ‘Orientalism’ would become a theme in the work of many artists. From the middle of the nineteenth century artists of the local school were joined by others from more northern climes discovering the unique qualities of light and landscape. With Cézanne living only a short distance away in Aix-en-Provence the area became a magnet for trendsetters in new artistic movements and this continued well into the twentieth century, attracting not only French modern masters but also painters from around the world. Marseille has always been a convenient point of entry to this hothouse of artistic endeavour and a focus for ‘Le Grand Atelier du Midi’ which, coincidentally, was the title of a major exhibition showcasing the importance of the area in the history of modern art held in 2013 as part of the celebrations for the European City of Culture.

Early local artists

Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789) was a native of Avignon and at the age of twenty he left France to further his artistic career in Rome, leaving through the port of Marseille. This experience obviously made a deep impression on him and was to inspire him to paint many marine subjects during his career including Le Port de Marseille, 1754 (Musée National de la Marine, Paris/www.musee-marine.fr).

Augustine Aubert (1781–1847) was born in Marseille and after training in Paris he returned to his home town. In 1810 be became the Director of the École Municipale de Desssin, a post he held until 1845. He was an early advocate of landscape painting as a serious artform and with his depictions of the countryside he anticipated the work of Cézanne.

Emile Loubon (1809–1863) was originally from Aix-en-Provence where he was a pupil of François Granet with whom he later travelled to Rome to continue his art training. He returned to Paris where he was much influenced by the Barbizon school and later moved back to Marseille to take over from Aubert as the head of the School of Design. He became a prodigious recorder of the changing landscape of the area around the city, typified by Vue de Marseille prise des Aygalades un jour de marché, 1853 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille).

Auguste Aiguier (1819–1865) from Toulon was a self-taught painter earning a living as a hairdresser and wig-maker but with a talent that brought him praise from Loubon amongst others. His Effet de soleil couchant au Vallon des Auffes, 1858 (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille) is a subltle and atmospheric depiction of sunset from the picturesque inlet on La Corniche which even today retains a great deal of charm amidst the surrounding modern developments.

Local artists adopt a more vibrant palette and energetic style

Adolphe Monticelli (1824–1886) was a marseillaise of humble origin and he attended the École Municipale de Desssin in the city and continued his training in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. His style can be described as Romantic and pre-Impressionistic, influenced by the Barbizon school and Delacroix. In 1870 he returned to Marseille and painted prolifically but financial success alluded him. He was friends with Paul Cézanne and they often painted together and his work was much admired by Vincent Van Gogh. His work is not without its detractors and is still subject to controversy and many see him as a minor figure in 19th century painting. Many of his paintings are housed in the Fondation Monticelli at L’Estaque.

Félix Ziem (1821–1911) was born in Burgundy but moved to Marseille in 1839 where he received some informal art training from Monticelli. His hobby soon developed into a full-time career and his style follows that of the Barbizon School. He was much travelled and one of his favourite subjects was Venice which he visited regularly but for several years he lived and worked in Martigues just to the west of Marseille and today there is a museum there devoted to his works. The painting shown is Port de Marseille, quai de l’Hôtel de Ville (Private collection).

Jean-Baptiste Olive (1848–1936), born the son of a wine merchant in the city but who became a prodigeous marine artist specialising in depictions of the port and sorrounding coastal landscape. His use of colour is more vibrant than that of his predecessors and his brushwork looser and more energetic. Favourite subjects were coastal scenes from La Corniche in all weathers and at all times of day, typified by Coucher de Soleil sur les Iles du Frioul (Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille).

Edouard Crémieux (1856–1944) was born in Marseille but trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in his early work the academic approach is very evident. However he soon developed a more colourful palette and spontanoeus style which was perfect for capturing the bright, breezy atmosphere of the coast around the city, as in La Corniche à Marseille (Musée de la Castre, Cannes).

Raphael Ponson (1835–1904) was born in Marseille and attended the art school there. He was an enthusiastic traveller in the region and many of his paintings are of marine subjects.

Joseph Garibaldi (1863–1941) was very definately a local artist, living and working in Marseille and devoting himself to the portrayal of Provence and its distinctive cultural identity. Typical of his work is Storm over the Old Port of Marseille, 1914 (Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille). His style remained his own and he seems not to have been influenced by the various artistic movements, schools and ‘isms’ that he saw come and go in his lifetime.

Jean Guindon (1883–1976) was born in Marseille and lived and worked in the area all his life. From his work it is apparent that he was influenced by the Fauves and he also exchanged ideas with many other artists passing through the town. The painting shown is Le Port de Marseille (Private collection).

Where Cézanne leads, others follow

Although Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a native of nearby Aix-en-Provence and is not noted for his paintings of Marseille itself, he was undoubtedly familiar with the place and would have often passed through on his way to L’Estaque. This is now a rather developed suburb but back in the day was a quaint fishing village. The distant profile of the city and hills beyond feature repeatedly in paintings made by Cézanne and these are now recognised as some of the most influential images in the development of art at the end of the nineteenth century. The image shown is one of these, Le golfe de Marseille vue de L'Estaque, 1878–1879 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Cézanne’s career is discussed in much greater detail in the entry on L’Estaque elsewhere on this site but it sufficient to say that he was seen as a pivotal figure by his fellow artists who continued to be drawn to the area for inspiration and many found the city of Marseille a rich source of subject material. Cézanne is often referred to as an Impressionist but although the movement had a profound influence on his development as an artist, his work, particularly in the South of France, pushed painting in new directions and led Matisse to describe him as “the father of us all”.

Paul Signac (1863–1935) was a leading light in the Neo-Impressionist movement, one of those new directions which sought to build upon the ideas of the Impressionists but also to accomodate the latest thinking on colour theory and visual perception. In the early years the style was characterised by the use of small touches or points of pure colour placed adjacent to one another allowing them to be mixed in the eye of the beholder rather than on the palette. This is where the term pointilism originates. Signac’s relationship with the South of France has been dealt with elsewhere on this site in the articles on Cassis and Saint Clair and he finally made his home in Saint Tropèz. As a keen yachtsman and traveller he would have been very familiar with the port of Marseille and in 1905 he was in the city and subsequently made two paintings, one of which, Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mère), Marseille, is shown here.

Henri Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943), a native of Toulouse, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and then traveled to Italy to continue his training. His work was influenced by the Impressionists and at times he adopted a similar technique to Signac and the Neo-Impressionists, typified by this study of a busy Marseille quayside.

Charles Camoin (1879–1965) was born in Marseille but trained in Paris where he became a life-long friend of Henri Matisse. For a time he was an enthusiastic follower of Fauvism, together with Matisse and others, which was another Post-Impressionist movement creating highly provocative paintings using vibrant, non-representational colour. Although Camoin’s palette was slightly more subdued his paintings still employed an array of primary colours, ideally suited to capture the atmosphere of the region with an air of freshness and spontaneity. After a meeting with Renoir in 1916 and with Cézanne and Bonnard being other important influences, his work could be described as being more in the Impressionist tradition rather than seeking to adopt the ideas of the more innovative movements of the twentieth century. After military service in the First World War, Camoin divided his time between Paris and Saint Tropèz. The painting shown is Marseille, Vieux port aux tonneaux, 1904 (Private collection).

Albert Marquet (1875–1947) was another student in Paris who formed an enduring friendship with Matisse and, like Camoin, went on to become a member of the short-lived Fauve movement. Their radical use of colour always sat uncomfortably with Marquet and eventually his paintings became more naturalistic in style. After being declared unfit for military service he moved to Marseille. He was also an inveterate traveller and lived for several years in Algiers. All this coming and going made him very familiar with the port and it was the subject of many paintings including Le Port de Marseille, France, 1916 (Leeds Art Gallery, UK).

Henri Manguin (1874–1949) was born in Paris and again became part of that class of brilliance at the École des Beaux-Arts that included Matisse, Camoin and Marquet all under the tutelage of Gustave Moreau. Again he was associated with the Fauvist movement but was also greatly influenced by the Impressionists. He travelled extensively with his friend Marquet and like the rest of the group became enthralled by the infectious atmosphere of this part of the world and eventually settled in Saint Tropèz. Often described as the “painter of happiness”,  perhaps the result of a fusion between Impressionism and the more emotional colour usage of the Fauves. The image shown is Vue du Port de Marseille (Musée Regards de Provençe, Marseille).

Raoul Dufy (1877–1953) is yet another figure from the cohort of gifted painters that subscribed to the Fauvist manifesto for a brief time. The Mediterranean coast became a magnet for this creative coterie and at times they must have been tripping over one anothers easels. He was subsequently influenced by the work of Cézanne and accompanied Georges Braque on a kind of pilgrimage to L’Estaque. After flirting with cubism he went on to develop a style that became quintessentially his own. His animated oils, watercolours and prints have become iconic images that capture the gaeity and “joie de vivre” of the South of France. The gouache and watercolour work shown is Le vieux port de Marseille, 1925 (Private collection).

Louis-Mathieu Verdilhan (1875–1928) is maybe a less prominent character in the pantheon of artists associated with the city but he has left an enduring legacy of images of Marseille rendered in his own very distinctyive style. Typical of this is L’entrée du Vieux Port de Marseille (Private collection). He was a local boy who took an interest in painting from an early age and then took the well-trod path to Paris to continue his training. Inevitably, Impressionism was a strong influence and then, like so many others, the ideas of the Fauves captivated him and imbued his work throughout his life.

Postscript: Two Englishmen abroad

Although the progression of artists from all corners of the world passing through Marseille and commiting their thoughts to canvas continued throughout the twentieth century, it is not possible to record them all here. Those painters who have been included are, perhaps, the most influential figures in the history of art in the first quarter of the century. All of these have been French, many of them local to the area and just to illustrate that the lure of the south spread beyond home shores, a short appreciation of two singular English painters is included.

As is often the case when investigating the artistic heritage of various places around France, and elsewhere, there is one name that crops up time after time and that is JMW Turner (1775–1851). He was a true genius and displayed his prodigious talent from an early age and became, perhaps, the best-loved English Romantic painter. He was inspired by the work of Claude and was dubbed ‘the painter of light’ and his subject matter was principally landscape and seascape. He was also an inveterate traveler, sometimes under very hazardous conditions, around the United Kingdom and indeed across most of Europe. The world has been left with a unique collection of images inspired by the landscapes of Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century, many of them disemminated to an eager public in the form of engravings designed to satisfy the craving for ‘armchair travel’. His painting anticipates that of the Impressionists and Post-impressionists and indeed his revolutionary use of colour could be mistaken for the work of a Fauvist who were pushing the boundaries of artistic practice some seventy years later. He really was ahead of his time and has proved to be an inspiration for generations of painters right down to the present day. It was on one of his many European tours that he visited Marseille in about 1838 and the picture shown is a watercolour entitled Vermillion Towers: A study at Marseilles (Tate Collection, London). It is a very loose and impressionistic study but perhaps the structure on the left could be a representation of Fort St-Jean with masts of ships at anchor in the harbour and with Fort Notre-Dame de la Garde (now replaced by the iconic church of the same name) on the right. Turner was less interested in topographical accuracy and more concerned with the use of colour and capture of atmosphere.

Edward Wadsworth (1889–1949) was born in West Yorkshire and was no stranger to the northern industrial landscape and this would impact on his early work as would his training as an engineer in Germany. However he changed the direction of his career and went on to study art, first at Bradford and then at the Slade. Here he was a contemporary of Stanley Spencer, CRW Nevinson, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington and David Bomberg and as such was part of a ground-breaking group that was so influential in the history of modern art in Britain. He became closely involved with the Vorticists led by Wyndham Lewis, responding to and challenging the ideas of Futurism, one of the many Post-Impressionist movements trying to interpret and reflect the dizzying changes in the modern world. During the First World War he found himself applying some of these ideas in the form of dazzle camouflage for allied shipping and nautical themes would recur throughout the rest of his career. After the war his style moved on to adopt elements of New Realism and he started to use egg tempera as his principal medium. It was in the early 1920’s that he discovered Marseille and the Côte d’Azur and was so enchanted by the place that he returned every summer for several years. A feeling of enchantment is evident in many of his works at this time, so much so that his style has sometimes been associated with Magic Realism, a genre including elements of surrealism and fantasy. The painting shown is Marseille Harbour, Quai du Port, 1924 (Government Art Collection, UK).