The Shadow of the Marion Dufresne in the Kerguelen Islands

This monumental canvas was developed from oil pastel sketches and preparatory studies made from the foothills of Port-aux-Français. At the latitude of the Roaring Fifties, the absolute clarity of the air endows forms with crystalline sharpness, devoid of heat haze.

The pictorial choice rests upon a radical dialogue: the naval engineering rigor of the Marion Dufresne, with its steel masses, white superstructures, and cinnabar-red bow, anchors into the austere basalt minerality of the Morbihan Gulf.