Born in Bordeaux, the great port city of southwestern France, Marquet met his close friend Henri Matisse in Paris and, together with a circle of fellow artists, developed the style known as Fauvism, characterized by pure color and free brushwork. Yet he never abandoned an approach grounded in close observation. Making distinctive use of what came to be called “Marquet’s gray,” and contrasting subtle middle tones and tonal values rich in nuance, he created landscapes that convey depth and light.
Marquet was deeply drawn to waterside scenes: the Seine as seen from his Paris home, as well as the ports and beaches he encountered on his travels in southern France and Algeria. He often returned to the same site repeatedly, painting it under different conditions of time and weather. From elevated viewpoints looking down from a window, he observed the interplay of water and architecture, structuring these scenes through simplified planes of color in order to bring out the essential underlying order of the landscape. He also lightly animated his compositions with figures, cars, and boats—motifs that evoke the pulse of urban life—rendered with an economical and supple touch. His exceptional draftsmanship, capable of capturing the essence of a subject with only a few strokes, earned him from Matisse the epithet “our Hokusai.”
This exhibition marks the first solo exhibition of Marquet in Japan in fully 35 years. It traces in detail the formative stages of his career and the evolution that led to his delicately wrought and highly refined mature style. At the same time, it focuses on waterside views as one of the most important motifs and themes in his art, while also highlighting the singular appeal of his late Pont-Neuf series. Around 90 carefully selected works, drawn from major public collections associated with the artist—including the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, the MuMa Le Havre (Musée d’art moderne André Malraux), and the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon (with works on deposit from the Centre Pompidou)—as well as leading Japanese museums and private collections in Japan and France, will be brought together in one place.

*During the exhibition period, we will be changing the exhibits of drawings and sketches.
First term: until November 1st (Sun), Second term: from November 3rd (Tue)