Oil on canvas

Signed lower left

Size: 65 x 30cm

With frame: 91 x 74 cm

The painting represents a garden path of the Palace of Versailles.

Gardens are a great source of inspiration for many painters. Rather than the central aisle and the famous fountains of Lenôtre, he chose a more intimate environment to develop his painting. The painter invites us to take the shaded path to the fountain. The spectator projects his way onto the perspective drawn by the painter, and loses himself in the serene contemplation of nature, the freshness of the trees of which is almost perceptible.

Henri Martin is illustrated by his specific “comma” brushstroke.

Henri Jean Guillaume Martin was born in Toulouse to a cabinetmaker father. He is very early attracted by the world of painting. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Toulouse in the studio of the painter Jules Garipuy between 1877 and 1879. He arrived in Paris in 1880, thanks to a municipal grant. He continued his apprenticeship in Paris with his master Jean-Paul Laurens, painter and sculptor.

In 1885, his trip to Italy was a turning point in his pictorial practice. The symbolist painter turns to a more poetic painting. He undertakes the trip with the idea of ​​studying the primitives, he acquires experience and technicality. Henry Martin

re-invent ; he detaches himself from his academic teaching. The artist develops his own style: short strokes, bright and luminous colors, idealized scenes and dreamlike atmosphere become the constants of his work.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the painter put his art at the service of numerous public commissions. It adorns buildings such as the Capitole de Toulouse, the Sorbonne University and the Elysée Palace (1908) or the Council of State (1914-1922). After settling in his studio in Labastide-du-Vert (Lot), he broke away from the symbolist themes of his beginnings (without however abandoning them completely) to move towards an introspective practice.

Appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1914, he was elected full member of the Academy of Fine Arts (painting section) in 1917. Died in 1943 in Labastide-du-Vert, Henri Martin remains a recognized artist whose universe, imbued with poetry, dreams and mystery, is an invitation to travel recalling his favorite writers: Baudelaire, of course, but also Verlaine, Poe or Lord Byron.