Albert Marquet

“'Albert Marquet and the Fauve movement, 1898 -1908', full text of thesis by Norris Judd, 1976”

“..a certain burst of light and colour, so awkward and so clumsy.. ..[he also added: A principle of form and of design is the most important element to be found in [Marquet's work].”

“Do you realize how sensitive Marquet is... ...do you see that he has suffered, and can you imagine how much. Have you noticed that he is easily bruised and that you will have to guess at his bruises because he will never say a word?”

“The colors, exceptionally violent, have cleared a well-known path.. ..Everything has gone according plan, as if expected. Everything except for the end result: a general effect that is, for Marquet, superb.”

“When I look at Hokusai, I think of Marquet - and vice versa... ...I don't mean imitation of Hokusai, I mean similarity with him.”

“The [Albert] Marquet of my youth [till c. 1904].. ..was a fighter, reliable, rock-steady, a sure companion.”

“It was not his fault that what was exciting to him was of no interest to others, and if his timidity prevented him from explaining himself.”

“..a sort of vengeful rage [Marcelle Marquette about Marquet's early street drawings.”

“At work, he narrowed his eyes, closed one eye, then the other, taking advantage of the fact of not having the same vision in both, and then born up by a force which hardened his face and his glance, he appeared in all his singleness of purpose.”

“Over the course of the war I came to understand a lot. The Communists are right.. .It's terrible that many people haven't understood anything and want to return everything back..”

“It is in working [= painting] that you will find yourself..”

“When I draw, 1 am as pre-occupied before a gas-jet as before a human being.”

“I do not know how to write or speak but only to paint and draw. Look at what I have done. Whether I have succeeded in explaining myself or not, in any case, if you do not understand my work, through your fault or mine, I can do no more.”

“Painting, even if we call it bad, if it is what helps to keep someone alive, how can we condemn it?”

“I was certain that they [ Poussin's paintings which Marquet copied frequently in the 1880's] would never bore me.”

“Let's leave the studio and go watch what moves..”

“..the Matisse of long ago, so alert, such a battler, always giving as good as he got.”

“It has happened that I have begun a canvas in a brilliant tonality, going on to finish it in a grey notation. (1898)”

“Our first Salon des Independants, where I think we [Matisse and Marquet] were the only two painters to express ourselves in pure colors, was in 1901.”

“Henri Matisse and I were already working, before the 1900 Exhibition, as far back as 1898, in what was later to be called the Fauve style.”