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Lot Essay
Cyrille Martin has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Martin was born in 1860 in Toulouse, where, at the age of 17, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts. There he quickly excelled quickly and two years later, after winning their Grand Prix, he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under academic painter Jean-Paul Laurens. Laurens introduced Martin to the masters of the Italian Renaissance and his study of their works while on a trip to Italy in 1883 infused warmth into his palette and turned his focus to atmosphere. On returning to Paris in 1889, he experimented with the Neo-Impressionist method of Pointillism and by 1898, the Pointillist technique of creating an image through contrasting colored dots was fully integrated into the modern pictorial tradition. Martin deftly combined it with the classical education he had received in Italy in the present work. Here, the twilight sun bathes a quiet French countryside scene. Martin placed dots and stripes of color closely together resulting in a surface which is both rigorous and fluid, mirroring the nature of the stream receding into the depths of the painting. The reflections of the poplar trees point back towards the foreground, balancing the composition.
Martin was born in 1860 in Toulouse, where, at the age of 17, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts. There he quickly excelled quickly and two years later, after winning their Grand Prix, he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under academic painter Jean-Paul Laurens. Laurens introduced Martin to the masters of the Italian Renaissance and his study of their works while on a trip to Italy in 1883 infused warmth into his palette and turned his focus to atmosphere. On returning to Paris in 1889, he experimented with the Neo-Impressionist method of Pointillism and by 1898, the Pointillist technique of creating an image through contrasting colored dots was fully integrated into the modern pictorial tradition. Martin deftly combined it with the classical education he had received in Italy in the present work. Here, the twilight sun bathes a quiet French countryside scene. Martin placed dots and stripes of color closely together resulting in a surface which is both rigorous and fluid, mirroring the nature of the stream receding into the depths of the painting. The reflections of the poplar trees point back towards the foreground, balancing the composition.