By Henri-André Martin
Located in Harkstead, GB
One of several paintings that we are offering from the Impressionist painter, Henri-André Martin's studio sale. A wonderfully evocative original painting of figures relaxing on a beach in the South of France, painted with panache by this Impressionist master.
Henri Andre Martin (1918-2004)
Figures relaxing on the beach, South of France
Signed with studio stamp to the reverse
Oil on board
13 x 21½ inches excluding frame
16¾ x 25½ 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...
Category
20th Century Impressionist Henri-André Martin Figurative Paintings