Watercolour 1

Port-Vendres

1925 – 1926

28.8 x 39.6 cm

Collection privée

The vantage point

We are on the east shore of the harbour on the road which goes from the jetty beach (Anse de la Mole) to the current commercial port. This road is cut through the hill that borders the shore.

To construct this road the workmen made a gap and two tunnels.

This support is placed at road level from where you can see Port-Vendres. To execute this work the artist was certainly positioned a little above the road on a small hill to the north north east of the Anse Mailly (Mailly Beach). 

This watercolour represents, on the left, the part of the road which is cut into the rock, making a gap in the hillside. In the centre, in the foreground, at the top of the hill, is the northeast face of Fort Mailly. At the bottom you can see the town of Port-Vendres, which is situated at the other side of the  harbour, on the north-west shore.

Pictorial analysis

  1. “Mackintosh has greatly increased the scale, height of the fort and its base. The hills in the background have been erased to highlight the fort, whose silhouette stands out against a brilliant blue sky.” Translated from English with the kind authorisation of the author, Professor Pamela Robertson, University of Glasgow. 
  2. The composition of this watercolor is very original: Mackintosh has indeed relegated to the top of the image the fort and the city of Port-Vendres, most of the surface being attributed to the rocky base cut by the trench of the road. He draws from the landscape in front of him almost abstract, and sometimes strange, patterns (blue stripes on the road and blue shapes lying on the surface of the water) which he expresses with great skill.

Historical guideline

The fort was built in the XVIIth century. When CR Mackintosh did his work the fort was not in ruins as it is now (see Fort Mailly position no. 2).

 

How to get there

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