The Sergeant of the Colonial Regiment is an iconic portrait from the Bordeaux artist Albert Marquet’s Fauve period.
Turned slightly to the left, the man is sporting a moustache and proudly showing off his dress uniform. He is firmly seated on a stool in an empty space which emphasizes his military attire. Eagle-eyed, Marquet excelled at the art of revealing the tiniest detail capable of summing up a model’s character.
Here, the painter plays with contrasts and highlights the sergeant’s charisma and good looks, which starkly contrast with the understated decor, reduced down to a simple wooden stool. Along with Matisse, Camoin, Derain, Manguin and Vlaminck, in 1905, Marquet was one of six artists who exhibited in room VII at the Salon d’Automne. This was the famous event where the art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term “fauves” to describe the work of these artists, painted with pure dissonant colours.
Although The Sergeant of the Colonial is typically Fauve with its bright yellow epaulettes ringed with a thick black line, red stripes and medals, or green beard, it is also reminiscent of Édouard Manet’s highly-contrasted figures, like The Piper made forty years earlier.
