After breaking up with Charmy, Camoin left France at the end of November 1912 with Amélie Matisse. They joined Matisse in Tangier where they all stayed at the hotel Villa de France. The two artists worked together and kept a fond memory of the stay despite Camoin’s hospitalisation for diphtheria. This trip to Morocco breathed new life into his art which, at the time, stood out as very dark and dense.
The Tangier light, although typical of the Southern climate, was a real rediscovery for Camoin. Located on the Atlantic coast, the Moroccan city did not benefit from the full Mediterranean sun and was frequently enshrouded in fog. Immersed in this unique atmosphere, Camoin returned to the airy compositions of his Fauve years, using a more atmospheric style. If he gradually gave up his black contours and thick strokes, firmness of line remained a distinctive feature of his work, harmoniously matched to the bright and soft hues of his palette. Playing with the transparency of colours, his fluid brushstrokes conveyed the subtlety of light more than they served the formal depictions of his subjects and were reminiscent of the landscapes Van Dongen painted in Egypt the same year.
The ornaments and fabrics of the inhabitants’ colourful costumes had a great decorative potential, but Camoin paid closer attention to their physiognomies in the sensitive portraits he painted.
On his return, his Moroccan work was shown to the Parisian public at the Galerie Druet in 1914. Seventeen paintings were exhibited and were well received by the critics. An important milestone in Camoin’s plastic research, this trip launched a new way of painting that continued well beyond the end of the First World War.
