Born in Toulouse, France, Henri Martin known for his Neo-Impressionist landscape paintings. Beginning in 1877, at age seventeen, he began studying art at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Toulouse under Jules Garipuy and Henry-Eugéne Delacroix, and later in Paris under Jean-Paul Laurens. His first solo exhibition came at the age of twenty-six, three years after medaling for the first time at the Paris Salon. Martin would them move to Italy where he was heavily influenced by the Quattrocento painter Masaccio and the late middle ages architect Giotto. Italy’s landscape and architecture would ultimately influence Martin equally.
Martin won the gold medal at the Salon of 1898, the same year he entered the Legion of Honor The following year he won the Grand Prize at the World fair. Martin exhibited widely throughout his career, achieved the highest awards, and received numerous commissions. In 1895 he painted a mural for Paris’ City Hall and another for the Capitol in Toulouse about ten year later.
Martin later chose the seclusion of the country, purchasing a mansion overlooking the Labastide-du-Vert in France. Inspired by the environment surrounding the property his painting flourished producing some of his best work. Martin remined in the mansion until his death in 1943.
This stunning Pergola highlights Martin’s expertise in capturing the natural light. Martin’s sense of peace and contentedness filter through his work after he purchased a thirty-acre property which included a large seventeenth-century house, named Marquayrol. This purchase marked a turning point in Martin’s career, a moment when he abandoned allegory and myth to fully devote himself to the representation of nature. The contrast between the geometric shapes of architecture and the irregular forms of nature – trees, flowers, and vines – appear to have interested him, but rather than emphasizing the incompatibility of manmade and natural forms, Martin stressed their harmonious integration.
Martin repeatedly painted the same motif, using different color schemes to characterize different seasons or time of day, reminiscent of Claude Monet’s series of Haystacks, Poplars, or Japanese Brides. Martin was less willing, however, than Monet to depart from “local color,” i.e., the colors we know things to be. This particular scene of the Pergola is represented in other paintings by Martin – utilizing greens, yellows, and blues for a summer scene and orange, reds, and yellows for a fall painting. Known for his Pointillist brushstrokes in the style of Paul Signac and Georges Seurat, Martin applied layers of color on the canvas, abstracting the composition and allowing the layers of color to represent light and shade.
Martin’s painting regularly brings high prices at auction. This work, Pergola à l’automne avec deux femmes donnant à manger à une chèvre blanche c. 1915 was sold at Southeby’s London: Wednesday, June 20, 3007 [Lot 00334] Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale-
Estimate: 250,00 – 350,000 GBP
Sold For: 580,000 GBP Premium
($1,149,653 USD)