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The Gulf of Marseille Seen from L'Estaque

ca. 1885
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 826
Cézanne enthused about the fishing village of L’Estaque to Pissarro in 1876: "It is like a playing card. Red roofs over the blue sea. . . . The sun is so terrific here that it seems to me as if the objects were silhouetted not only in black and white, but in blue, red, brown, and violet." Cézanne painted some twenty views of L'Estaque over the next decade, a dozen of them facing toward or across the gulf of Marseille. In the distance of this painting, atop the hill to the right of the jetty, the towers of Notre-Dame de la Garde stand watch over the city of Marseille.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Gulf of Marseille Seen from L'Estaque
  • Artist: Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
  • Date: ca. 1885
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 3/4 x 39 1/2 in. (73 x 100.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.100.67
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

Audio

Cover Image for 9504. The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L'Estaque

9504. The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L'Estaque

Ellsworth Kelly

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ELLSWORTH KELLY: I'm Ellsworth Kelly, a painter, sculptor. And I have some works of my own here in the Metropolitan in the first and second floors of the modern wing. This is a beautiful Cézanne that I saw when I was a young child. I believe this is the painting that I got hooked on because of the large blue shape. That blue shape fascinated me. And I always came back and had to touch base with this painting, because that blue shape somehow or other; it takes a good third of the painting, this blue shape that goes from one side to the other. And my later paintings – I've done a lot of paintings like this one at the Met downstairs – is a blue shape. And I've done a lot of blue-shaped paintings. That's why this painting is so special to me.

More Artwork

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The Large Bathers (Les Baigneurs)
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
ca. 1898
Portrait of Guillaumin with a Hanging Man
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1873
Exhibition Announcement and Catalogue for a Cézanne show at the Galerie Vollard (May 9–June 10, 1898)
After Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1898
The Large Bathers (Les Baigneurs)
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1898
Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
1893–94

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