Henri Martin, Paysan Se Reposant Sur Sa Faux, 1907

Henri MARTIN (1860-1943)
Paysan se reposant sur sa faux, 1907
Grease pencil and red chalk on paper, signed, dated and annotated lower right.

Avis d'inclusion dans les archives destinées à l'élaboration du Catalogue Raisonné d'Henri Martin by Marie-Anne DESTREBECQ-MARTIN. 

Preparatory study for La Famille, decoration for the town hall in the 10th arrondissement (and annotated at the bottom in the artist's hand). 

Henri Jean Guillaume Martin was born in Toulouse in the summer of 1860. For two years from 1877, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse in the studio of painter Jules Garipuy. In 1885, his trip to Italy marked a turning point and a more poetic approach to his painting. The painter developed his own style: short brushstrokes, bright, vivid colors, idealized scenes and a dreamlike atmosphere.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the painter received numerous public commissions, decorating buildings such as the Capitole in his native town, the Sorbonne and the Élysée (1908), and the Conseil d'État (1914-1922). Once settled in his studio in Labastide-du-Vert (Lot), he gradually moved away from Symbolist themes, without abandoning them, towards a highly personal style, reinterpreting Pointillism.

Martin died in 1960 in Labastide-du-Vert. He remains a renowned artist whose universe, imbued with poetry, dreams and mystery, takes the viewer on a beautiful journey reminiscent of his favorite writers: Baudelaire, of course, but also Verlaine, Poe and Lord Byron.