1867
Huile sur toile
60 x 110 cm - 23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in.
Signé en bas à gauche: F. Bazille
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Etats-Unis - Inv.1985.64.1
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-29 07:01:01
Référence : MSb-33
Peint à Aigues-Mortes en juin 1867 - Famille de l’artiste - Marc Bazille, frère de l’artiste - Mme Meynier de Salinelles, sa fille, née Laure Bazille - Marc Meynier de Salinelles, son fils, 1942 - Vente Paris, Palais Galliéra, 19 juin 1963 [n.n.] - National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985 (Collection M. et Mme Paul Mellon).
Paris, Grand Palais, Salon d'automne, 1910, Rétrospective Bazille, n° 12 - Montpellier, Exposition internationale, 1927, Rétrospective Bazille, n° 12 - Paris, Association des étudiants protestants, 1935, n° 3 (repr.) - Grenoble, musée de Grenoble, 1936, Centenaire de Fantin-Latour, n° 507 - Paris, galerie des Beaux-Arts, 1937, n° 53 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1941, Centenaire de Frédéric Bazille, n° 21 - Londres, Royal Academy of Arts, 1949-1950, n° 251 - Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, Rétrospective Bazille, n° 32 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1959, n° 21 - Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1966, French Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, n° 112, repr. p. 126 - Paris, Grand Palais, 1994, p. 331, Impressionnisme. Les origines 1859-1874, n° 6,p. 331 et repr. pl. 112, p. 331 - New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994-1995 [La même exposition - Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Paris, musée Marmottan Monet, 2003-2004, cat. 13, repr. p. 53 - Kansas City, Saint Louis, 2013-2014, n° 38 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, n° 36, repr. p. 238 et pp. 124-125 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
Poulain, Bazille et ses amis, 1932, n° 21, pp. 87-88, 214-215 - Descossy, Montpellier, berceau de l'impressionisme, 1933, pp. 22-23 - Poulain, L'Art et les artistes, 1934, p. 317 - Gillet, Le Trésor des musées de province : le musée de Montpellier, 1935, p. 239 - Poulain, Arts de France, 1947, p. 123 - Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 22, p. 50 [Thèse de l'Ecole du Louvre non publiée] - Sarraute, Cat. exp. galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 32 - Sarraute, Arts, 1950, p. 8 - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 24, pp. 112, 175-176 [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Allier, Lettres françaises, oct. 1959 - Daulte, Connaissance des Arts, déc. 1970, pp. 87-91, repr. p. 86 - Champa, Studies in Early Impressionism, 1973, fig. 120, pp. 86-87 - Daulte, 1992, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, pp. 107, 110, repr. coul. p. 108 et pp. 164-165, n° 27 (repr.) [Réédition de 1952 avec photos en couleur] - Michel, Bazille, 1992, p. 145 - Daulte, 1992, n° 27, repr. p. 164 et p. 108 - Jourdan, Cat. exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, fig. 46, repr. p. 102 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, pp. 106-108, 126 (repr.) - Tinterow, Cat. exp. Paris, New York, 1994-1995, n° 6, pp. 84, 331-332 - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 33, repr. p. 155 - Pitman, 1998, Bazille : Purity, Pose and Painting in the 1860s, pp. 130-132 - Kelly, Cat. exp. Kansas City, Saint Louis, 2013-2014, n° 38, pp. 25, 142, 144 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Cat. exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, cat. 36, repr. p. 238 et pp. 124-125 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 33.
"On a large canvas, I am going to make the walls of the city reflected in the pond at sunset", Bazille wrote in May 1867. A stay at Aigues-Mortes was already discussed in 1866, but the project was not realized until the following year. It was then that Bazille painted The Western Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes.
The ramparts come into view with defensive towers on either side, the Tour de Constance, the Porte des Remblais and the Tour des Bourguignons, testimonies of a past full of history. The calm water of the lagoon licks the foot of this medieval wall. On the water, sailing boats are moored sheltered from the wind. On the left, a few low houses partly hidden by a small wood and a mill with huge and frail wings. Bazille thus moved away from Aigues-Mortes, "straddling" the lagoon to execute a panoramic landscape this time. He put a certain distance between himself and the ramparts thanks to this wise stretch of water that reinforces the horizontality already marked by the ramparts. The greenish water dies on the shore in waves. The beams of the setting sun hit the Tour des Bourguignons which is reflected in the water. On the horizon, rare clouds, low and musty, disturb the limpidity of the azure sky.
The brushstroke is in the same vein as in the Porte de la Reine at Aigues-Mortes. It is essentially noticeable in the foreground, which makes Poulain say that it "predicts Sisley's happiest transparencies" [Poulain, 1932, p. 87]. Poulain, however, finds "the distant ramparts and sailing ships...hard, heavy, under the greenish sky".
There are several preparatory drawings for the Aigues-Mortes paintings. None of them seem really intended for The Western Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes, apart from the Studies of Sail Boats. Like the the other one, this painting at Aigues-Mortes fits perfectly into the tradition of Bazille, but it too moves away from classicism and closer to impressionism. Whatever it is, this painting is the clearest, the most luminous of the three executed at Aigues-Mortes.
