Antoine Ponchin (1872 - 1933) — View Of Martigues

View of Martigues
Oil on canvas, signed lower left.
74 x 92 cm

Antoine Ponchin (1872–1934) – Landscape painter, master of Provençal light

Antoine Ponchin (1872-1934) was a French painter best known for his numerous landscapes. Father of the painter Joseph Henri Ponchin, the two quickly began painting together, starting with views of Martigues, before their expeditions took them to the East, with Indochina as their final destination.
His trip to Indochina took place in 1922, when he won the Indochina Prize; it was this distinction that enabled him to be sent by the Minister of Colonies on amission to the city of Hanoi between 1922 and 1923.
In addition to Asia, Antoine Ponchin traveled extensively with his son, particularly in Italy, where they settled for a time in Venice. Despite this, he remained deeply attached to his native region, Provence, and his birthplace, Marseille.
He also owed this attachment to Provence and the provinces to his teachers Julien Gustave Gagliardini and Jean-Baptiste Olive. Both were masters of light andlandscape, with Gagliardini quickly abandoning his initial career in Paris to devote himself to landscapes, and Jean-Baptiste Olive, a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, painting tirelessly in the Old Port and its surroundings.
It was with this Provençal heritage and a life of travel and exoticism that Antoine Ponchin decided, in the autumn of his life in the late 1920s, to return to the South, his native region, to once again capture the light of Provence on canvas.

This work is part of the Antoine & Jos-Henri Ponchin exhibition presented at the gallery. For more information, visit our website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/exposition-antoine-jos-henri-ponchin-684acd6a8fb71