Le Jardin De Marquayrol c. 1930

Henri Martin made Le Jardin De Marquayrol, probably in oil paint, sometime between 1860 and 1943. Look at how he makes those trees. He’s broken down what he sees into these tiny marks, and it's almost like he's not just painting what's in front of him but how he's seeing it, the feeling of it, and the process of looking itself. The surface is alive with color, these little dabs and strokes that add up to something bigger, a kind of shimmering light. You can almost feel the heat of the sun on the path, the cool shadows under the trees. There’s this one spot, right where the path meets that bright white wall, that just glows. It’s not just white, but layers of blues and yellows, pinks and greens, all working together to create this intense light. Martin reminds me a bit of Vuillard, in the way he uses color and texture to create a sense of atmosphere, but he’s also doing his own thing, finding his own way to capture the world around him. And that’s what art is all about, isn’t it?