The painting Port Scene came from the collection of Beatrix Reynald, a French woman who settled in Rio de Janeiro during the German occupation of Paris. In Rio, she generously sold her collection to donate the proceeds to the French Resistance. Assis Chateaubriand purchased other works of this same collection that are conserved at Masp. They include canvases by Lhote, Utrillo, Marquet, Valadon, Waroquier, Laurencin, and Chagall. Presumably, an unstable evolution of the oil paint on cardboard caused damage to the painting, that was successfully restored and now boasts evident pictorial values and the Fauve background. This seascape depicts a port scene with sail boats, a subjectmatter that in principle has a gentle connotation. However, Friesz conceived it as a composition strongly stressed by the revolution of color pigments, constricted between a visually rough sky and sea; by the coexistence of contrasting visual focuses and by the presence of resolute diagonals that trouble the foreground.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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