Henri Martin, Saint-Cirq Lapopie, la place du Carol, 1915

Henri Martin bought a house in the mediaeval village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in 1912. The village is situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Lot in the Regional Natural Park of the Causses et du Quercy. This was after he acquired Marquayrol in Labastide-du-Vert in 1900 and prior to his house in Collioure in 1923. Three residences that greatly inspired his work.

Time seemed to have stopped in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, and with its fortified church, sloping rooves tiled in a traditional flat brown Burgundian style, its picturesque winding streets, artists were drawn to it since the beginning of the 20th century. Henri Martin was no exception, returning again and again to its streets for inspiration.

With a certain harshness in the pale planes of colour to the architecture, it is the striking low-angle viewpoint from the place du Carol, looking up at the historic mediaeval church, against a backdrop of a deep blue sky that draws the viewer to this striking painting. It emanates a certain calm and serenity in its stillness.

Sabine Maggiani, in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Henri Martin, du rêve au

Quotidien’ explains that by placing himself at this low angle, below the church, the artist addresses a part which seems inaccessible, and both the upward movement of the houses and of the church seem continuous.

In 1951 the artist André Breton acquired the oldest building in the village, the former sailor’s inn, which was later Henri Martin’s house.

Artworks

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Henri Martin French, 1860-1943

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Literature