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拍品專文
Born in Toulouse, Henri Martin found that he missed the light of the south when he moved to Paris. Towards the end of the nineteenth century Henri Martin began to search for a property to purchase where he could spend his summers. He would dream of his ideal house where he could sit and paint, a house which he described as 'une vielle habitation avec un toit Louis XIII et des tonnelles sans terres ou presque. Donc une maison plutôt placée sur un hauteur, assez vaste... l'entourage immédiat de la maison avec un jardin ou parc et de grands alentours avec de paysages que je puisse peindre' (exh. cat. Henri Martin 1860-1943, Cahors, 1993, p. 97-98).
Martin's search centred on three departments; the Tarn et Garonne, where many of his friends lived, the Aveyron, which had already seduced his eye for natural beauty and the Lot. As early as 1897 Martin had visited and admired St. Cirq Lapopie, and had also painted the mediaeval town of Puy l'Evêque, located in the heart of the Cahors vineyards. Martin's love affair with the valleys of the Lot initiated a turning point in his art; abandoning allegory and myth he concentrated solely on the depiction of nature. Martin's image of nature however was rarely pure. His landscapes often depict the town as background, his gardens include man-made features and his rural scenes are populated by workers. Far from portraying the imbalance of man's impact on nature, however, Martin's idyllic landscapes merge humanity and landscape, emphasizing their harmonious integration and depicting an image of peace and serenity; the present work depicts the town as timeless, the buildings as permanent as the river in which they are reflected.
Martin's search centred on three departments; the Tarn et Garonne, where many of his friends lived, the Aveyron, which had already seduced his eye for natural beauty and the Lot. As early as 1897 Martin had visited and admired St. Cirq Lapopie, and had also painted the mediaeval town of Puy l'Evêque, located in the heart of the Cahors vineyards. Martin's love affair with the valleys of the Lot initiated a turning point in his art; abandoning allegory and myth he concentrated solely on the depiction of nature. Martin's image of nature however was rarely pure. His landscapes often depict the town as background, his gardens include man-made features and his rural scenes are populated by workers. Far from portraying the imbalance of man's impact on nature, however, Martin's idyllic landscapes merge humanity and landscape, emphasizing their harmonious integration and depicting an image of peace and serenity; the present work depicts the town as timeless, the buildings as permanent as the river in which they are reflected.