Provenance
(Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris, no. 1037); sequestered by French government during World War I and sold by the government at (Kahnweiler collection sale, Paris, 4 July 1922, no. 44);[1] purchased by Constantin Rodenbach, Paris and Zurich; sold 28 March 1952 through (Irma Hoenigsberg, Paris and Zurich) and (René Gas for Galerie André Maurice, Paris)[2] to Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, New York; gift 1998 to NGA.
[1] Letter dated 20 May 1999 from Galerie Louis Leiris in NGA curatorial files confirms that the painting is referenced in the photo archive of the Kahnweiler Gallery, no. 1037. A photograph in NGA curatorial records is stamped Galerie Louise Leiris Gallery, rue d'Astorg, and bears the no. 1037. During the Second World War, Daniel Kahnweiler fled France and turned his gallery over to his sister-in-law, Louis Leiris, in whose name it continued to operate. The gallery was located on the rue d'Astorg between 1914 and 1957, when it moved to the rue de Monceau. It is unclear why the Leiris Gallery stamped a photograph of the picture if it had been acquired by Rodenbach at the Kahnweiler sequestration sale of 1922. Rodenbach's acquisition was recorded in the French press and it is from Rodenbach that Whitney acquired the painting in 1952.
[2] See the following documents in NGA curatorial files: letter dated 26 November 1951 from René Gas of the Galerie Maurice André, accepting purchase offer for the painting; letter dated 28 March 1952 from representative of John Hay Whitney, authorizing payment to Constantin Rodenbach for the purchase of the painting; letter dated 4 April 1952 from representative of John Hay Whitney authorizing payment to Mrs. Irma Hoenigsberg for commission on the sale. The painting was sent by air from Zurich to New York on 18 March 1952. Rodenbach is identified with a Parisian address in the 1960 Tate exhibition catalogue; Hoenigsberg had addresses both in Zurich and Paris according to documents in NGA files.
Accession Number
1998.74.6
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 64.77 × 80.96 cm (25 1/2 × 31 7/8 in.) | framed: 81.92 × 98.11 × 6.67 cm (32 1/4 × 38 5/8 × 2 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
The Port of La Ciotat from 1907 is a Fauvist painting from Georges Braque's (1882-1963) early period, before his collaboration with Picasso that would produce Cubism in 1908-14. The 1907 date places this in Braque's Fauvist period, when he was painting in the bold color and simplified forms that he learned from Matisse and Derain, and the Mediterranean port subject allowed him to exercise the Fauvist manner at its most brilliant—a Mediterranean landscape rendered in the pure, unmixed color that defines Fauvism. La Ciotat, a port on the Mediterranean coast east of Marseille, was a favorite subject for Fauvist painters because of the brilliant light and color of the southern French coast.
Cultural Impact
The Port of La Ciotat is important in Braque's early development because it shows the Fauvist manner from which Cubism would emerge. The 1907 painting demonstrates the bold color and simplified forms that Braque learned from Matisse and Derain, and the Mediterranean port subject shows Fauvism at its most brilliant—before Braque's encounter with Cezanne's painting in the fall of 1907 would turn him from Fauvism toward the geometric simplification that would produce Cubism.
Why It Matters
The Port of La Ciotat is Braque before Cubism: a Mediterranean port rendered in the bold, unmixed Fauvist color that he learned from Matisse and Derain, before his encounter with Cezanne in late 1907 turned him toward the geometric simplification that would produce Cubism. The 1907 painting is Fauvism at its most brilliant.
