Henri Baret – Les Martigues, Fishing Boats At Anchor – Oil On Panel – Signed

Henri Baret (Marseille School, first half of the 20th century)
Les Martigues, fishing boats at anchor
Oil on panel (two boards)
Signed lower left “Henri Baret”
Dimensions: 43.5 × 26 cm (panel) — 53 × 35 cm (with frame)
Modern molded frame with grooves and gilded trim
Very good condition
Part of a series of Provençal seascapes by the artist, in the same format.

Here, Henri Baret paints one of the most famous sites on the Provençal coast: Les Martigues, nicknamed “the Venice of Provence” for its canals lined with fishermen’s houses. Along the quay, a flotilla of rowboats and “pointus” is moored, packed side by side, in front of a row of ochre and cream-colored facades with tiled roofs. Light-colored laundry hangs to dry from one house to the next, punctuating the composition with small patches of light, while offshore a few sailboats glide across a calm sea, against the bluish outline of the hills. The light, soft and slightly veiled, bathes the entire scene in a peaceful late-morning atmosphere.

The brushwork is free and bold, with light impasto capturing the light on the hulls, the laundry, and the wake of the boats—in the tradition of Provençal landscape painters dedicated to rendering the radiance of the coastline. The motif of boats at rest, taken up by so many painters from Marseille to Martigues, is treated here with confidence and a keen sense of southern light.

The artist
Henri Baret was a French painter associated with the Marseille school, active in the first half of the 20th century (works dated 1936 are known). Biographical information about him is scarce, but his body of work is well documented through public auctions: he devoted himself to landscapes of Provence and, above all, to the Marseille coastline, painting the calanques, the entrance to the port of Marseille, Cap Morgiou, the coves along the Corniche, and the Martigues shoreline. His sunny and spirited paintings follow in the tradition of Marseille’s landscape painters—from Loubon to Moutte—who made the Provençal coast their favorite subject.

Work on view at the gallery (07240)
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