Raphael Ponson (1835–1904) - Le Deux-Mâts blanc

Oil on stiff cardboard, signed lower left
Dimensions 47 x 30 cm / With frame 67 x 49 cm

Raphaël Ponson is a major Impressionist painter of the Marseille School. He received a classical training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Marseille with Emile Loubon as his master. Ponson left us paintings with well-balanced compositions; nourished by his love of the Mediterranean, he turned to plein-air painting, which enabled him to produce superb views of Marseille, Martigues, the Cassis creeks and Nice, always with great accuracy.

Ponson's vigorous brushstrokes wonderfully capture the light of the south of France. As early as 1872, critics recognized his work as a memento of the most beautiful sites on the Côte d'Azur. Raphael Ponson hesitates between Romanticism and Impressionism, with a technique that uses both brush and knife. He is known for his alternating brushstrokes for relief and more delicate, smooth brushstrokes for calm waters, where he mixes blue with green transparencies.

The reputation of this great artist has certainly suffered from the place that Jean-Baptiste Olive took in the same field and at the same time. Yet Ponson is no mere imitator of Olive, for his touch and palette are truly personal and subtle. Among Raphael Ponson's works in museums, "Un nid de goélands à la calanque de Port-Mihou près Marseille", owned by the Musée des Archevêques de Narbonne, is a true masterpiece.

Our painting is an Impressionist work in its own right. The water is treated with rapid, horizontal strokes of pure color, giving the perfect impression of water transparency. The boat is treated with much more substance, catching and concentrating the powerful sunlight. The sky is almost sketched with a very light, transparent paint, which perfectly captures the sensation of the rising heat of a summer morning. Finally, the boat and the small red spot are of crucial importance, as they form a vanishing line and give life to this pretty marine in perfect condition.