Oil on canvas, signed. Painted c.1920
Canvas size: 31 x 42.5in / 79 x 108cm
Frame size: 39 x 50.5in / 99 x 128cm
Henri Martin purchased a house in Labastide-du-Vert in 1900. He very quickly began to abandon the symbolist ideals that characterised his earlier work, and drew his inspiration from the landscapes surrounding his house there. In Marquayrol everything was a source of interest to Martin and he was very eager to capture the change in light and tones during the day and throughout the seasons. This example depicts the terrace outside his house during a rainy day.
Tajan Paris, 24 March 1999, lot 17
Richard Green Gallery, London
Private Collection, Canada
This painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Cyrille Martin
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Title: Le Pont de Labastide du Vert (un jour de printemps, ciel couvert) Artist Name: Henri MartinBorn Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin in 1860, Henri Martin was a French painter from Toulouse. After persuading his parents that his future lay in art, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, and then completed his artistic education in Paris.
Martin received solid academic training, which heavily influenced the first part of his career. After five years of submitting traditional paintings to the Salon, during which he was awarded a first-class medal, Martin accepted a grant to study in Italy where he developed a huge admiration for Pre-Renaissance and Renaissance painters such as Giotto and Raphael.
Unusually, Martin also became influenced by Seurat and other Post-Impressionist painters, which led him to briefly pursue a fusion of conservative academic imagery with the short divisionist brushwork of Seurat and his followers. This period of stylistic soul searching led to several years producing Symbolist works, culminating in the long series of mural commissions which made his name.
However, the big change in Martin’s career can be traced to his purchase of a property in Labastide-du-Vert, north of Cahors, in 1900. Very quickly, Martin abandoned the allegory and myth of Symbolist art and began to use nature as his inspiration.
Alongside a continuous stream of wall paintings, he started to work on canvases in his now habitual Post-Impressionist manner, predominantly of the countryside and villages in the south of France. These paintings are considered among his most successful works, and he continued to produce them until his death in 1943.
Willow Gallery offers a selection of original Henri Martin paintings for sale for anyone interested in investing in his celebrated work.
