The Beach - Oil On Canvas - Henri-andre-martin - 20th Century

THE BEACH ARTIST: Henri-André MARTIN (1918-2004) TECHNIQUE: Oil on canvas PERIOD: 20th century DIMENSIONS without frame: 90 x 58 cm DIMENSIONS with frame: 110 x 78 cm COPY: Original work with studio stamp on the back of the painting. Sold framed. Montparnasse carved wood frame from the 1940s/50s. Landscapes, still lifes, and pointillist nudes are the themes that Henri-André Martin (1918-2004) explored throughout his life through painting. Trained alongside Joseph Lamberton and Henri Grosjean, then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, the artist nevertheless followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a doctor in Lyon, where he practiced his entire career. But this did not prevent him from indulging his passion for painting in his free time, exploring themes dear to him. He fully embraced this practice upon his retirement in 1985. A passionate art lover, he also collected works by his contemporaries, primarily from the Malaval Gallery in Lyon, owned by his partner, and became a patron of artists such as Joseph Alessandri, Pierre Pelloux, and Jacques Truphémus. Henri-André Martin had the opportunity to travel both in France and abroad, experiences he used to inspire his paintings, creating numerous landscapes, from the beaches of Saint-Tropez and Deauville to the streets of Lyon, Paris, Venice, and the Nîmes train station. The artist thus unveils his cherished Lyon landmarks, showcasing the Saône River, Fourvière Hill, and the Parc de la Tête d'Or, before turning his attention to the capital's most iconic monuments, from the Sacré-Cœur Basilica to Notre-Dame Cathedral. As a physician, Henri-André Martin is constantly engaged in research and works in an almost scientific manner. When he tackles a theme like the nude, he experiments extensively, exploring techniques and colors, delving deeper into his subject through serial work. The nude is then treated in pencil, pastel, and oil, blossoming from sketches to large-scale pointillist canvases. Similarly, religious subjects serve as a pretext for the painter's chromatic and technical experimentation, as he explores the crown of thorns of Christ in various colors and formats. From the 1980s onward, this exploration shifted toward a focus on texture, resulting in increasingly abstract canvases. Thus the landscapes of the Alpilles, the trees, and more particularly the olive trees, flourish in compositions halfway between abstraction and figuration.