Henri Martin

Private Collection, France
Acquired from the above in the late 1950s by the father of the present owner  

The canvas is not lined and there appear to be no signs of retouching visible under UV light. There is a nailhead-sized spot of fluorescence to the centre of the lower edge visible under UV light, which is most likely thickly applied pigment and intrinsic. Apart from a few minor specks of gold paint residue to the centre of the extreme right edge, due to previous framing, and some very minor craquelure, mostly to the areas of thicker impasto, this work is in good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the colours are slightly more vivid in the original.
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Born in Toulouse in 1860, Henri Martin found inspiration in the light and natural surroundings of southern France throughout his career. Before purchasing his home at Labastide-du-Vert in 1900, Martin spent his summers in the south, and it is probably during one of these sojourns that the present work was painted. While the 1890s marked the height of Martin's Symbolist period, Les Amoureux du Printemps clearly recalls the paintings of Jean-Françoise Millet. The present work also relates to the pointillist technique Martin employed in 1889, about which he remarked: 'while pursuing the various effects of light, I was enticed to paint in a different way to give out the atmosphere. The full glittering and diffuse light forced me to give it out as I could, by a sort of pointillism which, it seems to me, represents rather well the dazzling of light' (the artist in Jac Martin-Ferrières, Henri Martin, Paris, 1967, pp. 36-37).

Jac Martin-Ferrières writes, 'Henri Martin was without doubt an Impressionist and one who had the deepest sensitivity, certainly equal to that of Monet, whom he most admired. Owing to their utmost sensitivity and not through research of a technical process, their interpretation of nature is certainly a poetical evocation hued by a thousand colours which can undoubtedly be called a work of art... [his] palette is an enchantment. Many different interminglings of colours make a rare and rich harmony... And it is much more difficult to find a good harmony of colours when representing nature than to assemble some nice colours representing nothing. Herein lies the gift of the Impressionists and that is why there are so few' (Jac Martin-Ferrières, Henri Martin, Paris, 1967, pp. 35-42).