*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Henri Martin* French (1860-1943) Canal à Venis, c. 1910 Oil on canvas 36 x 20 inches Signed lower left: Henri Martin Provenance: Private collection, South America Henri Martin, who was Italian on his mother’s side, discovered Italy in 1886, his first visit to Venice affected him greatly and had a profound impact on his artistic development. Like contemporaries such as Boudin, Pissarro, Renoir and Monet, Venice fascinated the artist. Just before his return to France he wrote: ‘Of all the cities that I have seen on my trip, Venice is by far the one that delights me the most… What corners it has to paint in! I was not expecting such work, or I would have left Rome and Florence earlier… Italy offers everything to be desired. I will come back as soon as possible’ (quoted in C. Juskienewski, Henri Martin (exhibition catalogue), Cahors & Toulouse, 1993, p. 91). His Venetian paintings are among Martin’s most evocative, capturing the poetic majesty of the city. Rather than depicting the city’s architectural splendor and impressive facades, the artist was interested in recording its sublime and romantic qualities With our painting Canal à Venis, Martin shows the considerable influence that Venice played in his work as well as the maturation of his Post-Impressionist style. On a striking vertical canvas, unusual in proportion and with the horizon line placed at its center, Martin succeeds in rendering the conventional subject matter of a Venetian canal into a novel and completely original work of art. With a composition that emphasizes the narrow passage of the canal, he further accentuates the subject by dividing the canvas into strong vertical planes. The reflected light seems to pour down the center of the picture, painted with large almost frothy strokes of pale blues. The warms colors of the canal-side buildings are deepened in their watery reflection. While the painting veers near abstraction, the uncanny handling of the reflections of the water, and Martin’s hint of a lone figure on the bridge, bring the work back into the realm of Impressionist storytelling. After visiting the major exhibition of Martin’s Venetian canvases in Georges Petit’s gallery in 1910, Achille Segard noted: ‘Il regarde Venise à travers son Quercy. Il a vu des ceils et des eaux méridionales et il fait tout de meme de très beaux tableaux sur des motifs vénitiens, parce que ses motifs éveillent en lui le meme lyrisme instinctif que ceux da sa région’ (quoted in Henri Martin (exhibition catalogue(, Palais des Arts, Toulouse, 1983. p. 96) While touring Italy Martin discovered a style involving a short brush technique that divided the picture plane in many small and visible strokes. Georges Seurat, who made his own advances in Post-Impressionism, used the same technique, and several of Martin’s works began to reflect a Post-Impressionist aesthetic. Influenced by the radical new styles, Martin shed his academic style for the Pointillist technique of Seurat. In 1889 he submitted a painting to the Salon that was fashioned in this style. Several of his works showed a kinship to the Symbolists but Martin chose more of the influence of Impressionism. It has been said that Martin has used the radical style of Post-Impressionism and applied them to conventional subject matter. Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin was born in Toulouse, France, the son of a carpenter. He studied art formally under Jules Garipuy at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse and with Eugene Delacroix. In 1879, he moved to Paris where he worked and studied in the studio of Jean-Paul Laurens. Laurens encouraged Martin to study Veronese and other Venetian painters, and his early work was inspired by Italian literary influences such as Dante. He was awarded a fellowship from the Paris Salon that allowed a trip to Rome. While in Italy he was attracted to the countryside’s brilliant light and also by the work of Giotto and Massacio. Martin exhibited at all the major venues of the Symbolist painters: the first Salon de la Rose Croix in 1892; the Munich Secessionist exhibition of 1893, La Libre Esthetique in Brussels in 1896 and the Vienna Secessionist exhibition of 1898. Though he received contract offers from many prominent Parisian dealers, he remained independent. After growing tired of Paris life, Martin moved to the town of Marquayrol near Labastide du Vert in the Lot Valley. There he painted the countryside near his house. He continued to work in his characteristic Post-Impressionist style, painting large and colorful canvases that demonstrated his mastery of light. Museum Collections Include: Musee d’Orsay, Paris; Musee du Petit Palais, Paris; Musee des Augustins, Toulouse; Musee Henri Martin, Cahors; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; Philadelphia Art Museum, PA; Palais des Beaux Arts, Paris; Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, Albi; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia; Telfair Academy of Arts & Science, Savannah; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Musee Bonnat, Bayonne; Musee Beziers; Musee Carcassonne; Musee Dijon; Musee Douai; Musee Lille; Musee Montpellier; Musee Montreal; Musee Mulhouse; Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes; Musee du Luxembourg, Paris