Vue de Collioure

In Vue de Collioure Martin revisits a subject that had captivated painters over a decade earlier. Though Signac once stopped by briefly on his way to Saint-Tropez, it was Matisse who really discovered Collioure in 1905, and returned for many years thereafter. On the southern coast of France, near the border to Spain, this stretch of Catalan coast has been described as "the point at which France came closest to North Africa" (H. Spurling, The Unknown Matisse, A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908, London, 1998, p. 299). "Traces of the Moors were everywhere in Collioure, from the construction of the houses to the crumbling fortifications that had once enclosed the town, and the watchtowers that still surmounted neighboring hilltops. The tall orangey pink bell tower (instantly recognizable in so many of Matisse's paintings) was a converted lighthouse, originally built according to legend by the Arabs" (ibid.). Martin uses the iconic bell tower, as well as the title to specifically denote Collioure as the port town in the present work and position himself within its vibrant artistic legacy.