Our cover this month, Petit garçon au bord du bassin du Jardin du Luxembourg à Paris by Henri Martin, sold for £68,750 at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale on Feb. 28, 2019 in London. Martin was a French painter who was associated with the Neo-Impressionist movement.
Neo-impressionism, an art movement started by artist Georges Seurat in the 1880s, refers to the painting technique of using dots and blocks of colors side by side, as opposed to the traditional mixing of color pigments either on the palette or directly on the canvas. Instead of the artist blending the colors, the “mixing of the colors” occurs in the observer’s eye, when the painting is viewed from a suitable distance.
Born in Toulouse, France, Martin relocated to Paris, where, with the help of a scholarship, he was able to pursue his study of art. The hustle and bustle of a big city proved overwhelming for the timid artist, who relocated to a mansion near the French town of Cahors. Martin never retired from his craft, working well into his late years and beginning his final large decoration in 1935 at age 75, only four years prior to his death.