This summer, let’s travel to the charming fishing port of Collioure with this bright view by Henri Martin, painted in 1920 and titled “La Tour de Collioure”.
Discover it right away on this video, and from today at the gallery.
VIDÉO One minute with Henri Martin
Collioure, home port of the painter Henri Martin
Originally from Toulouse, the painter Henri Martin trained in Paris and discovered the light of Italy in 1885.
He was the author of symbolist subjects as well as landscapes and owes his notoriety to his majestic decorations in Marseille, Lyon, the Capitole of Toulouse, the Sorbonne and the Conseil d’Etat or State Council in Paris.
In 1900, he acquired a house in the Lot region – not far from Cahors, which he occupied until the end of his days.
In 1923, Collioure became his other home port. Matisse and Derain had already fallen under the spell of this picturesque site in Roussillon, which has since been considered the cradle of Fauvism.
Henri Martin set up his easel in the different districts of the town. Saint Vincent’s Beach, as is depicted here, was among his favorites for the reflections of the sky on the Mediterranean shore and the contrasts of colors of the vast panorama that extends to the mountain ranges.
A close friend of the Neo-Impressionists, Le Sidaner and Seurat, Henri Martin mastered pointillism perfectly. In a freer way than Signac, he applied these thousands of small touches of color that give life to the painting.
The water seems to shimmer in the sun. A soft light caresses the facades of the buildings and the famous bell tower and lighthouse of the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Anges.
The boats with their shaded hulls, the activity of the fishermen busy with their nets and the rural calm of the background, the work is imbued with a certain lyricism of everyday life.
Many of these views of Henri Martin’s Collioure are now preserved in museums. This one is remarkable due to its large size and this golden luminosity.
This work is currently exhibited at the gallery.
La Tour de Collioure
Henri-Jean Guillaume MARTIN
(1860-1943)
La Tour de Collioure
1920
Oil on canvas
90 x 110 cm
Signed lower right
Provenance
– Private collection, London
– Hammer Galleries
– Private collection, USA
– Private collection Paris
Certificate of Cyrille Martin, son of Jacques Martin-Ferrières and grandson of the artist.
Price upon request. Contact us
