In its expressive application of vibrant colour, Port de Cannes, soleil levant is a powerful example of the artist’s mature work and Charles Camoin’s enduring commitment to colour.

It was during Camoin’s years spent at the École des Beaux Arts de Paris, in the studio of Gustave Moreau, that the artist formed career-defining friendships with Henry Matisse, Albert Marquet and Jean Puy. Working within this avant-garde environment, Camoin gained a new appreciation of colour and form. He began to incorporate into his works the bold strokes of non-representational colour that would define his unique artistic vocabulary and which saw him play a key role in the fauvist movement, exhibiting in the seminal 1905 cage aux fauves exhibition at the Salon d’automne. For the remainder of Camoin’s career, his paintings, the present work included, bear the influence of these pivotal years in art history.

In his early career Camoin worked often between Paris and the South France, however, it was following the tumultuous years of the second world war that he made the decision to move permanently away from the bustle of the city, renting a studio overlooking the Gulf of St Tropez. The present work exemplifies the inspiration that the artist drew from the unique light of the Mediterranean and the subject of the Port of Cannes was so favoured by the artist that it appears in various guises throughout Camoin’s œuvre. In the present work, Camoin’s carefully chosen palette of cool blues set against the yellows and oranges of a rising sun instils a warmth and optimism into the scene. Painted in 1956 in the latter part of the artist’s career, Port de Cannes, soleil levant encapsulates a lifet.mes of painterly exploration and is test.mes nt to the artist’s unfaltering desire to push the boundaries of colour and form.