Henri Martin

Estate of the artist
Thence by descent to the present owner

Toulouse, Palais des Arts & Paris, Mairie annexe du 5e arrondissement, Henri Martin (1860-1943), Études et peintures de chevalet, 1983, no. 28 (as dating from circa 1901)
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Monet to Matisse: Landscape Painting in France 1874-1914, 1994, no. 212, illustrated in colour in the catalogue (titled Study for 'Men Scything' and as dating from circa 1902-03)

The canvas is lined. UV examination reveals a few small spots of retouching to the upper half of the work, the most prominent of which is to the left of the fourth left tree. There are a few small flecks of paint loss to the right of the extreme upper edge. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition. Colours: fairly accurate in the printed catalogue, though overall slightly less red 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. While the 1890s marked the height of Martin's Symbolist period, Etude pour 'Les faucheurs' or Bastide du Vert clearly recalls the paintings of Jean-François Millet. The present work is a study for the central panel in the polytriptych titled Faucheurs that Martin executed in 1903 for the Salle Henri Martin at the Capitole in Toulouse (fig. 1), one of Henri Martin's most impressive works, and arguably the one that contributed most to maintaining his reputation as a muralist in the first decades of the twentieth century. 

Etude pour 'Les faucheurs' or Bastide du Vert is an idyllic portrayal of pastoral life. The artist affectionately places the harvesters scattered yet synchronised across the left half of the canvas, drawing your eye towards the three young girls dancing in the foreground and finally to the mother cradling her baby. The cycle of seeding, growing and reaping inferred by the harvesters is then delicately echoed in the development of the life cycle, east to west across the canvas. The diagonal cast of shadows from the row of poplar trees in the background give the suggestion of movement, as the subjects are bathed in dappled sunlight in a 'pastoral symphony'.

Although described by Jacques Martin-Ferrières as 'an Impressionist...who had the deepest sensitivity, certainly equal to that of Monet' (J. Martin-Ferrieres, Op. Cit., p. 35), Martin manages to avoid the over sentimentality that often characterises the work of artists attempting to portray scenes of the rural idyll. Instead he chooses to celebrate the majesty, attitudes and labour of life, glorifying the everyday toils of peasant farmers, and in doing so harmonises a broad palette into a meaningful interpretation of nature.