Oil on canvas. Composed in structured blocks and triangles, distinctively outlined in black, the compositional style of 'Le Vieux Port' is immediately recognised as a painting strongly influenced by Cubism. Its subject depicts the area of Marseilles known by this name. Christopher Nevinson knew Marseilles well and was actually in Le Vieux Port on 4 August 1914, the day that he heard at first hand that the First World War had broken out. He gave a vivid description of that day in his 1937 autobiography 'Paint and Prejudice'.
Although the date on the painting appears to read 1910, research by a former Government Art Collection curator has suggested that these numbers have almost certainly been strengthened during restoration at some time during the painting's history. The stylistic influence of Cubism strengthens this assertion as Nevinson met and saw the work of Cubist artists at first hand while studying and living in Paris from 1912 to 1914.
Nevinson was born in London and studied at St John's Wood School of Art and the Slade School of Art up to 1912. While studying at the Academie Julian, Paris, in the following year, he met radical, experimental artists notably Gino Severini and Amedeo Modigliani. In 1914 Nevinson co-founded the London Group. During the War, Nevinson served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and exhibited his work in London. His first solo show, primarily of war paintings, was held in September 1916 in London to great acclaim. Subsequent exhibitions secured his reputation as an innovative artist who captured the violence and fear of war. At the end of his life he turned to the more traditional subjects of landscapes and flowerpieces.
