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From a sandy beach, we look across a sun-drenched body of water enclosed by a long, sand-colored, crenelated wall in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted, especially in the beach closer to us and in the water, which is a blend of aquamarine blue and honeydew green. The beach has a few areas of celery-green growth. The shoreline stretches away along the left side of the painting, back to an area with emerald-green trees. A few boats, painted with swipes of black and peanut brown, are pulled up to the beach near the trees. Spanning the right two-thirds of the composition, the wall angles away from us so the closest part of the wall is to our right. There is a round, stout tower at the end of the wall to our left and another near the right edge of the canvas, though the wall continues beyond that tower. There is an arched doorway about halfway long the length of the wall. The water is smoothly painted with only a few ripples where the tower to our right reflects in the surface. In the narrow space between the beach to our left and the wall to our right, a few buildings, a windmill, and more trees line the horizon in the distance. The top half of the painting is given over to a topaz-blue sky, with only a few puffy white clouds near the horizon.

Frédéric Bazille

The Western Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes, 1867

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 60 x 100 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in.)

framed: 78.7 x 116.2 x 7 cm (31 x 45 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1985.64.1

Artists / Makers

Frédéric Bazille (artist) French, 1841 - 1870

Image Use

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Overview

In 1867, Frédéric Bazille spent a month in Aigues-Mortes, a fortified medieval town in southern France. Renowned for its well-preserved ramparts and as the launching point for two Crusades, Aigues-Mortes is also conveniently located less than 20 miles from what was the Bazille family property outside Montpellier.

Of the three paintings that Bazille is known to have completed during his sojourn, The Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes most clearly conveys the feel of a sun-drenched Provençal landscape. The sky and water, intersected by the ramparts, are dominated by brilliant blues, greens, and violets. These cool shades form a striking contrast to the warm ocher of the walls, which is echoed subtly in the earth in the foreground. A surviving sketchbook indicates that Bazille searched tirelessly for the perfect vantage point from which to represent the ramparts, but the apparent fluency in the painting’s execution suggests effortlessness rather than toil.

Inscription

lower left: F.Bazille.

Provenance

Marc Bazille, brother of the artist; his daughter, Mme Meynier de Salinelles-Bazille, Montpellier, by 1935 until at least 1949.[1] (sale, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 19 June 1963, unnumbered); purchased by (Hector Brame, Paris); sold 1963 to Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA;[2] gift 1985 to NGA.

[1] Lent by Mme Meynier de Salinelles-Bazille exhibitions in Paris in 1935 and to the Royal Academy exhibition in 1949.

[2] Acquisition and source according tp Paul Mellon records in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bazille, Marc
Brame, Hector
Mellon, Paul
Meynier de Salinelles-Bazille, Mme
Palais Galliera

Exhibition History

1910: Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, 1910, no. 12.

1935: Frederic Bazille, Association des Etudiants Protestants de Paris, Paris, 1935, no. 3, repro.

1936: Centenaire de Henri Fantin-Latour, Musée Bibliothèque de Grenoble, 1936, no. 507.

1949: Landscape in French Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1949, no. 251.

1950: Bazille, Wildenstein, Paris, 1950, no. 32.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 112, repro.

1973: French Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1973-1978, unnumbered checklist.

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 37, repro.

1994: Origins of Impressionism, Galeries nationales d'Exposition du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994-1995, no. 6, fig. 112, repro. (shown only in New York).

1996: French and American Impressionists, Albany Museum of Art, Georgia, 1996, unnumbered cat., repro.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 21, repro.

2003: Frédéric Bazille, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, 2003-2004, no. 13, repro.

2011: Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2011, no. 3, repro.

2013: Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 2013-2014, no. 38, repro.

2016: Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and The Birth of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpelier; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016-2017, no. 36, repro.

Bibliography

1932: Poulain, Gaston. Bazille et ses amis. Paris, 1932: no. 21

1990: Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 37, repro.

1992: Daulte, François. Frédéric Bazille et les débuts de l'impressionisme. Paris, 1992:no. 27, repro.

1993: Bajou, Valérie. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870. Aix-en-Provence, 1993:107-108, repro. 126

1995: Schulman, Michel. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870: Catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1995:no. 33, repro.

1998: Pitman, Dianne W. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998: 130-132, repro. no. 81.