Une allée dans le Parc du Château de Versailles

Henri Jean Guillaume Martin, known as Henri Martin, was a French post-impressionist painter born on August 5, 1860, in Toulouse, France. The son of a cabinetmaker and a homemaker, Martin's artistic journey began at the École des beaux-arts in Toulouse, where he studied under Jules Garipuy from 1877 to 1879. A municipal scholarship enabled him to move to Paris to study under Jean-Paul Laurens. In 1881, he married Marie Charlotte Barbaroux, a pastellist he met at the Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, with whom he had four sons, two of whom became painters. Martin's artistic style underwent a significant transformation after a trip to Italy in 1885, where he studied the primitives alongside Edmond Aman-Jean and Ernest Laurent. This experience steered him towards a more poetic inspiration, leading him to adopt a unique divisionist technique. Unlike the rigid academic models, Martin's approach was characterized by short, separate, and parallel brushstrokes that crafted forms and light in an idealized chromaticism conducive to dreaming. Influenced by symbolist themes and literature, including works by Poe, Dante, and Baudelaire, Martin's paintings often featured misty landscapes populated by melancholic, timeless figures. His contributions to the art world were recognized in various exhibitions, including the salons of the Rose-Croix in 1892. Henri Martin passed away on November 12, 1943, in Labastide-du-Vert, leaving behind a legacy that bridged post-impressionism and symbolism.