Watercolour 15

Collioure

1924

37.9 x 46.5 cm

The Art Institute of Chicago

Collioure, in Catalan COTLLIURE, is a town located on the Vermeille coast on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. It is famous for its site and its heritage and has attracted many artists.

Collioure saw the birth of FAUVISM: a French pictorial movement of the early 20th century.

In 1905, Henri Matisse wanted to make a new start in his artistic career by exploring Collioure. This small village steeped in history, bordered by the sea and surrounded by hills of stepped vines aroused his astonishment by its nature and its crazy charm and at that time became his main source of inspiration.

Henri Matisse was joined by other painters André Derain, Etienne Terrus, Aristide Maillol and Daniel de Monfreid. These artists created together this new stream of painting – fauvism, in totally separating it from the convention of the time. With a base of emotion and color it was pushed to its climax, liberating creativity.

They worked together in Collioure and produced many works which will become world famous a few years later.

A little later, in the early summer of 1924, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret arrived in Collioure to join their friends Rufolf IHLEE and Edgar HEREFORD.

Mackintosh had the idea of ​​committing himself to painting landscapes, particularly those of the villages he discovered as his journey in Roussillon progressed Collioure.

The vantage point

We are below the road to Port-Vendres on a promenade that borders the bay of Collioure to the south, looking towards the beach of La Balette and looking north, north-east across the bay towards the old town and Fort Miradou.

The painting was painted by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1924 during his stay in the area. It represents the sea in the foreground, then the beach of Collioure on which four Catalan fishing boats are stranded. You can also see part of the old town in tiers, finally overlooking Fort MIRADOU erected at the top on the Puig MUSART.

Pictorial analysis

  1. “Mackintosh captured the imposing hillside elevation of the ‘Summer Palace’ in the morning, as the rising light outlines its buttresses and gables. The painter was on an elevated position on the other side of the bay, just off the main road that connects Port-Vendres to Collioure. The mass of the foreground is ‘passe-partout’, the modest hills of the background have been magnified, their curved shapes and their bright colors providing a complementary decor to the man-made palace. The austere massing of the castle must have reminded him of the south elevation of the Glasgow School of the Arts.” Translated from English by kind permission of the author: Professor Pamela Robertson – University of Glasgow – translation S. Plas

 Le fort Miradou

Fort Sainte-Thérèse was built In 1540 under the reign of Charles Quint on the height of Puig Musart,. This, given its location, was of paramount importance for the defense of the royal castle. 

Between 1671 and 1679, Vauban, who wanted to make Collioure a garrison town and strengthen its defenses, decided to raze part of the old town to clear Fort Royal and built a protective bank in its place. On the other hand, he undertook the construction of a new fort on the site of Fort Sainte-Thérèse: Fort Miradou or Mirador. 

On December 16, 1793 the fort capitulated to the onslaught of the Spaniards (Guerra Gran or War of Roussillon).

Today, Fort Miradou, is the property of the army, and has become the National Commando Training Center (CNEC), whose mission is to harden army executives and personnel, welcomes around 3,000 trainees per year and its motto is “always at the peak”.

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