Méditerranée

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Nadal.

Influenced by the broad brushstrokes and the vivid colours of the Fauvist artists Raoul Dufy, George Braque and Henri Matisse, Spanish born Nadal began to develop his personal style at the beginning of the 1940s. During those years, he travelled much around different regions of France, as well as to England, Russia, Mexico and all around South America. His love of travel reflected in the multiple flags he often includes in his seaside and port scenes, be they on the Riviera or the Flemish coast.

Méditerranée typifies Nadal’s distinctive style. Characterized by a spontaneous painterly freedom, vivid colours are energetically layered over a white underground and sketchy delineated objects. The deep red colour of the beach huts on the right and the magenta of the sky form a splendid contrast to the azure blue of the sea, reflecting Nadal’s interest in the way colours interact differently with natural light.

John Duncalfe has written: ‘Nadal was never far away from the lure of water. As a young boy in Paris he was drawn to the riverboats on the Seine, intrigued by the movement and changing scene of the water’s edge. Back in Barcelona in 1921, Nadal began a lifelong love of ports and all that might encompass the sea – fishing sheds, customs men, ships, sailors and bathers.’ (J. Duncalfe, Carlos Nadal: An English Perspective, Harrogate, 2010, p. 90).



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