Henri-André Martin

French Modernist, Beautiful Summer Butterfly

1996

An incredibly striking image of a Swallowtail butterfly. Painted with great energy and style. This would look stunning against a white wall. Henri-André Martin (1918-2004) A Swallowtail butterfly Signed Oil on canvas 23½ x 23½ inches excluding frame 26½ x 26½ inches including frame Provenance: The artist's studio sale Born in Lyon in 1918, Henri-André Martin spent his youth in Saint-Étienne. Following his father into the medical profession, he spent his first years studying medicine in Lyon, but also enrolled in the École de Beaux Arts during this time. Upon returning from captivity in 1942, Martin soon became director of the otolaryngology clinic at Édouard-Herriot hospital. Painting, however, remained his true calling in life - it was, to him, an invaluable form of self-expression. Reserved and extremely modest, and frequently regarded as somewhat aloof, art was a means of articulating his anxieties and apprehensions, as well as giving a voice to his inner child. Martin had a brush in hand at all times, wherever he went, and painted countless gouaches of varying sizes. His beach paintings in particular have been compared to those of Boudin. Until the 1970s, Martin had a tendency to paint ‘on the ground’, yet in all of his paintings, there is a distinct sense of distance and removal from the subject-matter. In the years that followed, we see a development in this simplification and abstraction of the subject-matter, as seen, for example, in his images of almond trees standing alone against the stark winter sky of Provence. The palette begins to darken, his work acquires a feeling of gravity, as his paintings of Hamburg Port evidently reflect. His collection entitled ‘Trunks’, six lithographic plates, draws on visual and written material in the book, L’Olivier. His interest in the symbolism of the olive tree subsequently grew, and he turned to literature, painting and historical traditions to develop and nuance his understanding of its allegorical value. This fascination with the olive tree, and more broadly, with the nature of symbolism, came to profoundly inform his later work. What he learnt to represent was not merely the physical reality of his subjects, but their implicit interconnection with abstract ideas. As René Déroudille writes, the lithographic plates are ‘especially devoted to and embrace renewal’, revealing an artist who is in ‘full mutation’. In the 1980s, Martin’s work took a more explicit turn towards abstraction. It was during this time that he produced a series of large nudes, which he entered into the major exhibition at L’Atrium in Lyon, in 1992. In the years that followed, Martin focused on animating the shapes and forms born of his imagination, eventually accomplishing this and changing his focus once again, turning to more attractive, even decorative subjects, like Japanese...

An incredibly striking image of a Red Admiral butterfly set against a background of petals. Painted with great energy and with a most appealing texture to the paint surface. Looks re...

An incredibly striking image of a white butterfly set against a background of yellow petals. Painted with great energy and with a most appealing texture to the paint surface. This lo...

An incredibly striking image of a white butterfly set against a background of yellow petals. Painted with great energy and with a most appealing texture to the paint surface. This lo...

A really appealing view of the English countryside in the springtime with rolling hills, cattle grazing in lush pasture and a windmill off in the distance. George Graham (1881-1949)...

An idyllic scene on an impressive scale of cattle grazing in Constable country. Algernon Mayow Talmage (1871-1939) ​Cattle grazing on the banks of the river Stour Signed Oil on canv...

Provenance: The Artist. Menikoff collection (friends of the artist) About this artist: Born in Little Italy in 1907, Gregorio Prestopino first set out to become a sign painter as th...

John Farrar (American, 1928-1972) Signed: John Farrar (Lower, Left) “ Pardner ”, 1943 Titled Above Signature (Lower, Left) Oil on Canvas 26 ⅛” x 32 ⅛” Housed in a 2 ½” period ornamented Newcomb-Macklin frame in toned gold leaf, in good original condition. Outside Size: 30 1/2" x 36 5/8" A recent discovery of a painting that appears to be Farrar’s family dog. This was done when he was just fifteen years old. As a teenager in the 1940s, Farrar received much local acclaim in the Washington D.C. art Scene. Words like “Child Prodigy”, “Brilliant” and “Gifted” were used to describe him in the local newspaper. He had a great bout of early success which included developing patrons among Washington DC’s art elite but this was short lived as he was afflicted with schizophrenia and alcoholism as an adult causing him to spend much of his life in mental institutions. In 1942, Farrar won the Washington Times-Herald's outdoor art fair. This painting was executed the following year when he was 15 (1943). That same year he won the top prize at Atlanta University’s third annual “ Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture and Prints by Negro Artists ” with a piece titled “ Queenie ”. Approximately one hundred and fifty works of art were included in the show, representing the best works of more than seventy-five contemporary African American artists. This show included works by Romare Bearden, who was awarded Honorable Mention for his painting “ The Two Genrerations ”. Also included among the exhibitors - Charles H. Alston, Allen Rohen Crite, Aaron Douglas, Fredrick Flemister, Sargant Johnson, Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence, Marjorie Wheeler Brown, Hughie Lee Smith, Lois Mailou Jones...

*ABOUT Stephen Basso Stephen Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic, yet thought provoking fantasies. His whimsical works are alive with boundless imagina...

Antique American school modernist painting. Very well done and an usual subject! Oil on board. Framed. No signature found.

Oil on canvas. Framed. Image size, 18H x 24L. No signature found. Very nicely painted.

Nicely painted modernist horserace scene. Finely framed. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 12H x 16L. Signed.