Albert Marquet (1875-1947)

Femme arabe, Sidi-Bou-Said (Arabian Woman, Sidi-Bou-Said)

Details
Albert Marquet (1875-1947)
Femme arabe, Sidi-Bou-Said (Arabian Woman, Sidi-Bou-Said)
signed 'Marquet' (lower left)
oil on canvas
21 x 25 in. (54 x 65 cm.)
Painted in 1923
Provenance
Mme. Marcelle Marquet, Paris
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Mrs. Arthur W. Pope, New York (acquired from the above, 1964)
By descent to the present owner (acquired in 1981)
Exhibited
Albi, Muse Toulouse Lautrec, Exposition Albert Marquet, peintures, aquarelles, dessins, July-September 1957, p. 33, no. 31 (titled Femme arabe dans la rue, Sidi-Bou-Said).
Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts; Quebec, Muse des Beaux-Arts, and Ottawa, National Gallery, Albert Marquet, peintre franais, 1964, no. 43 (titled Femme arabe a Side-Bou-Said).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Marquet, May 1964, no. 31 (illustrated).
New York, Marc de Montebello Fine Art, Inc., Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Paintings and Drawings, October-November 1995 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

The Wildenstein Institute will include this painting in their forthcoming Marquet catalogue raisonn being prepared by Jean-Claude Martinet.

In 1920, Marquet traveled to Algeria for the first time in search of a different light and new scenery in which to paint. Spellbound by Northern Africa, Marquet revisited Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco continually discovering the breathtaking beauty of the people and countryside. Marquet and his new bride, Marcelle, sailed for Tunisia in February of 1923 and spent the following six months in the town of Sidi-Bou-Said. From this stay, Marquet brought back an important series of works, including the present painting. Marcelle once wrote of their Tunisian honeymoon, "It is a memory suspended in the sky, surrounded and streaked with light. The two of us in this blue and white landscape, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea."