Félix Ziem – Boats And Net On The Shore – Ink Wash – Studio Stamp

Here is a finalized sketch, just as Ziem loved them: we see two boats on the shore, near a wooden structure where a net is drying.

In the background, the reliefs of the hills bordering the Berre pond can be seen. For we are most likely in Martigues, the place where Ziem took root. The main motifs were quickly drawn in pen. They were then completed, just like the landscape, with an ink wash.

The whole is in very good condition, without foxing. The stamp of the Ziem workshop appears at the bottom right of the work. It is placed under a dark mat, under glass, in a beautiful modern frame of gilded and carved wood.

The artist
Félix Ziem was born in Beaune in 1821 and died in Paris in 1911. An architect by training, Ziem turned to painting at an early age, first in Marseille and then in Nice, before embarking on an artistic journey punctuated by the great cultural centers of his time.

Venice, which he discovered in 1841, was an aesthetic and spiritual revelation for him. The lagoon, its palaces shimmering in the water, the gondolas, and the golden skies became an obsessive motif that he revisited throughout his career. His "Views of Venice," with their shimmering reflections and vaporous atmospheres, earned him rapid success among French and foreign collectors. The Orient was another decisive source of inspiration: Ziem traveled to Algeria, Egypt, and Turkey, bringing back sketchbooks that mingled markets, oriental architecture, and the silhouettes of dromedaries. The exoticism of these oriental scenes, treated with vibrant light, seduced a clientele eager for the picturesque.

But if Venice and the Orient occupied a central place in his imagination, it was in Martigues that Ziem permanently anchored his life and his work. In 1845, he discovered this small fishing town in Provence, sometimes nicknamed the "Venice of Provence" because of its canals. Martigues became for him a privileged place of retreat and creation. He acquired a house and a studio there, where he worked regularly for more than half a century, between his many travels. In Martigues, Ziem tirelessly painted the ports, the quays, the fishing boats, the houses with colorful facades reflected in the calm water of the canals. Unlike the more theatrical compositions inspired by Venice or the Orient, his views of Martigues are characterized by a familiar simplicity, a proximity to the daily life of the inhabitants.

Ziem's Martigues production was considerable: he produced numerous sketches and drafts on location, which he then reworked in his studio. Many of his paintings are now housed in the Ziem Museum in Martigues, an institution founded in 1908 thanks to the painter's own legacy, keen to leave a lasting mark on the town that had adopted him.

Ziem, decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1857 and celebrated during his lifetime, died in 1911.

His works are now featured in several public collections in France (André-Malraux Museum of Modern Art in Le Havre, Museum of Fine Arts in La Rochelle, Luxembourg Museum in Paris, Ernest-Cognacq Museum, etc.) and abroad (Museum of Modern Art in New York, Cincinnati Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum, Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul).

Work visible at the gallery (07240)
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