Le port de Cassis, 1891
Oil on canvas, signed and dated 91 lower left.
46 x 61 cm
Provenance :
Marseille Enchères Provence sale, 2013
Private collection, France
Galerie Alexis Pentcheff, 2015
Private collection
CASSIS, OUT OF SEASON
Joseph Garibaldi, painter of "terres marines", is an eminent interpreter of Mediterranean light, tirelessly probing its effects on the waves. Born in Marseilles in 1863, he came to painting on the recommendation of Louis Prat, head of the Marseilles spirits company Noilly-Prat, for which his father worked. A pupil of still-life painter Antoine Vollon, like Jean-Baptiste Olive, the young artist forged strong friendships with his son Alexis, which lasted beyond the master's death in 1900.
His works most often depict ports on the Mediterranean coast: La Ciotat, Bandol, Sanary Toulon and Cassis, as illustrated by the painting here, dominated by the silhouette of Cap Canaille.
The morning sun gilds the façades of the fishermen's houses, none of which have yet become restaurants. Far from the hustle and bustle of summer as we know it today, the little fishing port sees the boats and their rowers drift away on the calm waters of the quiet morning.
In Garibaldi's canvases, human presence is often anecdotal, and the almost photographic precision of the whole does not prevent the subject from being distanced, orchestrated by other technical elements such as framing or the treatment of color and light, as well as the refusal of details betraying the march of modernity. These snapshots thus take on a timeless character. The feeling that dominates these compositions is one of profound tranquility, a solitude imbued with nostalgia, in line with the intentions of the Felibreans.
Garibaldi was also particularly attached and faithful to the port of Marseille, where from his studio on the Quai de Rive-Neuve, he could not stop exploring the forest of masts unfurling beneath his windows.