Charles Martin-sauvaigo (1881-1970, Busy Street In A Southern Village: Landscape, Oil, Nice?

Charles Martin-Sauvaigo (1881-1970)
Animated street in a southern village: landscape (Nice?)
Oil on canvas
66 x 54 cm
Signed and annotated lower right: C. Martin-Sauvaigo / Nice? ...
Good condition - canvas need to be stretched

From an early age, pushed by Félix Ziem who had noticed his talent, Charles Martin-Sauvaigo, turned to drawing and painting. After having been for some time under the direction of A. Mossa at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice, he came to Paris and was introduced to the National School of Fine Arts in November 1900. Following the teachings of Léon Bonnat (until 1905), in 1906 he became a full pupil definitively from Muc-Olivier Merson (until 1911).
Supported financially by the city of Nice and the Alpes Maritime department, he won numerous competitions which made him known. Thus, he received his first important orders and carried out numerous decorations for public buildings in the Midi: the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes, for the Lycée de Garches de Nice as well as for the chapel of the Brézin hospice in Garches. From 1910, he exhibited at the Salon of French artists in Paris then, received the title of Painter of the Navy in 1922, after an interruption in his career during the war. Also an easel painter, heir to the Impressionist tradition, author of numerous landscapes and seascapes, he saw several special exhibitions devoted to him in the great Parisian galleries, such as the Georges Petit gallery or the Susse Frères gallery. Charles Martin-Sauvaigo then won the praises of renowned critics who underlined his deep knowledge of the secrets of the sky, the atmosphere, the color and the sea.
Our painting is an illustration of his work on animated landscapes, probably in the south of France (Nice?), in bright colors, and a touch of all material, especially in the rendering of the leaves of the trees. Charles Martin Sauvaigo offers us here a work of movement and nuances, where the rendering of southern light plays an essential role, perfectly inscribing this work in the legacy of the impressionist movement. Several of his works are currently in the collections of national and municipal museums (for example at the Masséna museum in Nice), in France and abroad. An exhibition was dedicated to him in 2010, at the Bellanda Tower in Nice.