iSOMPO Museum of ArtNishi-Shinjuku
Albert Marquet: A Retrospective
Some 90 works by the French Fauvist, tracing his career and celebrated waterside scenes and Pont-Neuf series, on loan from major French museums.
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Paris lies under snow in four colours: brown, green, grey and white. Marquet painted Snow and Green Sky, Paris (Pont-Neuf) in February 1947, after surgery, from the Pont-Neuf flat he had lived in since 1931. He had started out beside Matisse in Gustave Moreau's studio, painting in pure Fauvist colour.
About 90 works, Japan's first Marquet solo show in 35 years, follow that path in five chapters: the early Fauve nude, harbours from Le Havre to Naples, Algiers, where he married his guide Marcelle and sat out the war, the late Pont-Neuf views, and a final floor of drawings. You take the lift to the 5th floor and walk down to the 3rd. One reviewer found the greys melancholy, "a long novel without a dramatic arc".
Come for quiet looking, not fireworks. Tickets are ¥2,000, ¥1,200 for ages 18 to 25, free for high-school age and under. Fridays run to 20:00. The drawings change over 1 to 3 November, and Van Gogh's Sunflowers waits in the collection corner.
Look for
Nude, called Fauve Nude (1898)
Look for a standing model in yellowish flesh tones against a background of green, blue, red and purple, painted in his student years.
Naples, Le voilier (1909)
Water fills most of the canvas, fishing boats set the depth, and Vesuvius sits on the horizon as a silhouette the show's coverage compares to Mt Fuji.
Window at La Goulette (1926)
A small interior: a brown vase of yellow, red and purple flowers, pink-grey wallpaper with violet spots, and a thin emerald sea with a boat beyond.
Balcony, or Striped Awning (c.1945)
A red and yellow striped sunshade hangs over a quiet room, with the window open onto the bright Bay of Algiers.
Snow and Green Sky, Paris (Pont-Neuf) (1947)
Paris under snow, built from just brown, green, grey and white, painted after his operation.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want Fauvist colour throughout: most rooms move into Marquet's later greys and muted tones.
With kids
High-school students and younger get in free. The route runs down by stairs from the 5th floor to the 3rd, with lifts as an alternative.
Also at SOMPO Museum of Art
On now nearby
Image credits
5
- Albert Marquet: A RetrospectiveCourtesy of SOMPO Museum of Art
- The Beauty of Coolness: Edo-Tokyo Museum Glass Craft CollectionCourtesy of Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Suikoden: The Water Margin, Outlaws of the MarshCourtesy of Tokyo Station Gallery
- Masterpieces from the Itsuo Art Museum Collection: Buson, Go Shun, and the Art of TeaCourtesy of Suntory Museum of Art
- SOMPO Museum of ArtAsanagi / Wikimedia Commons, CC0