Joseph Garibaldi (1863-1941) - L'aia

A very important author already recognized in historical museums.

Son of an Italian employee of the Noilly Prat company in Marseille, Giuseppe Garibaldi's talent was discovered by Louis Prat, the owner of the company, who enrolled him at the École des Beaux-Arts of the city. The arrival of the Lyonese painter Antoine Vollon in Marseille was decisive: under his influence and on his advice, he exhibited at the Salon. Garibaldi became his devoted friend, assisting him in his last days in August 1900. He remained friends with Alexis Vollon, Antoine's son, as well as with his fellow students and colleagues of the Association of Marseille Artists (AAM).

Giuseppe Garibaldi exhibited at the Salon des Artistes from 1884 to 1914, where he received an honorable mention in 1887 and a second-class medal in 1897. His works mainly depict views of famous places and monuments, as well as coastal ports: Cassis, where he regularly painted between 1884 and 1899; La Ciotat, where he was welcomed by Antoine Lumière; Saint-Cyr, Bandol, Sanary, and Toulon. However, his specialty remained the Old Port of Marseille. He depicted its various ships and activities from the windows of his subsequent studios on Quai de Rive Neuve.

He married Célestine Auriac in Marseille on February 26, 1903.

Until 1905, he benefited from the patronage of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), who, guided by critic Paul Leroy, who was very supportive of Vollon's students, purchased his paintings and donated them to provincial museums. He exhibited his landscapes at the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille in 1906 and received a travel scholarship to Tunisia in 1907. For the rest of his career, he was supported by his friends from the AAM (Étienne Martin, José Silbert, and Édouard Crémieux, who later directed the association).

After two trips to Venice (1895 and 1903) and Corsica (1889 and 1895), and journeys to Savoy (1904) and Ariège (1906), he remained connected to his neighborhood of Rive-Neuve. It was only after World War I, when he obtained accommodation in Fos-sur-Mer, that he regularly went there to paint and discovered the vast landscapes of the Camargue.

An avid photographer, he drew inspiration for his compositions. His compositions often reserve wide spaces in the foreground and are organized according to the principle of folded sides. They are characterized by the particular quality of his blues, the serene appearance of the places he depicts, his still and sparkling waters, his small figures or anonymous washerwomen, his refusal to depict the Transporter Bridge, which in his eyes disfigures the port, his love for the humble and for animals—a vision of traditional Provence he wished to perpetuate and a conception of art far from all avant-garde trends.

Faithful to his master and friends, faithful to the Old Port of Marseille, of which he became the official champion, faithful to a painterly tradition, he remained faithful to his profession of faith: 'In artists, personality and honesty are essential, as in life in general.'

In the 1930s, he contracted glaucoma, which irreversibly damaged his palette.

Four exhibitions have paid tribute to him: Les terres marines de Joseph Garibaldi in Cassis in 2006, and Joseph Garibaldi, le Midi tranquille at the Palais des Arts in Marseille, where about a hundred of his paintings and drawings were displayed from March 10 to July 1, 2012. Then, Joseph Garibaldi in Fos-sur-Mer in 2022, and Promenades Provençales avec Joseph Garibaldi in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer in 2023.


This perfectly preserved watercolor artwork, kept within its original passepartout, is a highly detailed depiction of an Aja or, more generally, a rural space.
At the bottom of the sheet with a dedication 'to my protector'.

Kept in perfect condition, excellent state.


Dimensions entered including the passpartout.
The painting without a passepartout is still of decent size for a watercolor, approximately 40x30cm.


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