The colors of André Marchand

Musée Estrine – Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

September 20 — December 20, 2026

André Marchand created an emblematic body of work in which colour occupies a central place. A self-taught artist, he left his native Aix-en-Provence for Paris in the mid-1920s. There, in contact with the Parisian avant-garde, he developed what came to be known as a “monochrome” form of representation, in which his subjects were treated in a classical manner, through graduated tones and richly applied glazes. The overall tonality of paintings such as The Florist and The Betrothed conveys an impression of uniformity in the treatment of light, which appears more artificial, with metallic overtones. His palette unfolded through blues, greys and ochres, unified by the lustre of varnish. During the war, Marchand experienced a vision that prompted him to abandon this earlier manner and embrace pure colour in sophisticated combinations. At the same time, form began to fragment, and his work moved decisively away from the repertoire he had established in the preceding years. Large, contrasting compositions with compressed perspectives, such as Astarté and The Fates, began to emerge. Complementary colours took the place of drawing in structuring the pictorial space, while black and deep blue would henceforth form the recognisable foundations of this new pictorial horizon. Marchand joined the Maeght Gallery in the year it opened its doors on the rue de Téhéran, in 1945. He was now an established and fashionable painter, known and acclaimed for the power of his work with colour. Colour would never leave him; instead, it would continually evolve in response to the places where he painted. In Provence, it would be luminous and warm; in Burgundy, earthy and damp; in Brittany, atmospheric. Yet it would always remain the guiding thread—the Ariadne’s thread—running through his work…