Henry Hayden (1883 Warsaw - 1970 Paris), In a quiet harbor

oil, canvas, 38 x 55 cm
Signed p. d.: Hayden
"Between 1921 and 1950 we are dealing with a very capable painter, a keen observer, an artist of great sensitivity. In the paintings, the background and farther plans return, the brush duct is quick and efficient, but Cubism and its theories are a thing of the past," Pierre Celice, a friend of the painter, said of Hayden's painting after the artist's departure from the aesthetics of Cubism. (Masters of the Ecole de Paris. Henri Hayden, ed. A. Winiarski, Warsaw 2013, p. 17.) From then on, landscape played a central role in Hayden's work. Taking a break from Cubist style in these compositions, Hayden embraced realistic representations of landscapes, building them up with luminous, flowing color patches. The artist's numerous travels through the towns of southern France (Sanary, Cassis, among others), brought sun-drenched views of towns, or the peaks of buildings of cities and towns blending into the mountainous terrain. Hayden masterfully captured the character and atmosphere of these places.
An excellent example of such works is the painting "In a quiet harbor" presented in the auction catalog. The composition here is dominated by the depiction of the blue of the luminous water, encroaching on the idyllic bay of the harbor. Moored on the water, the colorful boats seem to be gently rocking on the almost invisible waves. In the distance, buildings illuminated by the glow of the setting sun may be seen. Hayden built the entire scene with a lightly layered, almost pastel color palette. The synthetically guided drawing, the lack of a visibly marked outline, the full saturation of color - these are the characteristic features of Hayden's landscape painting.