Henri Martin

Private collection
Sotheby's, London
Private collection, Sydney (acquired from the above in the late 1990s)
Private collection, Melbourne

The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, Vol. 95, London Offices of The Studio, London, 1928, pp. 39 (illus.), 46 (as ‘The Church of La Bastide’ Leicester Galleries)

probably: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Exhibition of French Contemporary Painting, Leicester Galleries, London, July – August 1927 (inscribed on Robinot Frères shipping label verso)

This peaceful village scene of L’Église de Labastide-du-Vert was painted during the 1920s in the free pointilliste style that brought Martin huge commercial success. Martin’s mosaic of unmixed parallel brushstrokes and the chromatic effects of their relative spacing creates a shimmering springtime view of the small village in the south of France where Martin lived until death in 1943. By the age of 40, the artist had tired of Parisian life, and searched for a residence in the ‘midi toulousain’, where he could spend half the year in the warm and sun-drenched countryside of his childhood. In 1900, Martin purchased a grand 17th century château of 28 hectares, Marquayrol (meaning ‘maison du rocher’ in local Occitan dialect), in the preserved medieval village of Labastide du Vert, in the Lot. The tranquil rhythms of this rural village, ordered by seasonal agricultural work, provided Martin with a limitless natural source of inspiration for his best works.

Perched high on a hill, Marquayrol’s terraced gardens offered the artist an incomparable sweeping view over the Vert valley, dotted with swaying poplars and ringed by purple peaks. The slow-moving tributary of the Lot River, the Vert, wends its way through the valley, snaking in a distinctive bend to the north of the town before passing under a double-arched drystone bridge a few meters from Labastide-du-Vert’s stone church, the Saint-Carissime. These three local landmarks: the sparkling iridescent stream, the bridge of local limestone where villagers would stop to chat, and the striking profile of the church’s campanile with its two successive rosettes, would become favourite subjects for Martin. Like Rouen Cathedral for Monet, Martin never tired of painting Saint-Carissime, capturing impressions of the building at different times of day and atmospheric conditions. This view of crisp springtime renewal was painted from the riverbank with a row of spindly poplars twinkling with spring buds and a trio of ducks in the foreground expertly described with a handful of brushstrokes of contrasting Prussian blue and pink. Martin has painted this scene in a spontaneous and assured manner, with small interstices of canvas left bare between brushstrokes. Confidently orchestrating the harmonies of bright meridional colours, Martin’s deft touches coalesce into this shimmering sublime bucolic scene.