1937 Canvas, oil. 40 x 60 On the designer stretcher there is a barely noticeable inscription in pencil: Henri Martin / 1937
Description This work is a sketch for painting the high ceiling (plafond) of a large hall. The artist used motifs from ancient Greek mythology - the triumph of the goddess. The female figure of the goddess sits in heaven, supported by cupids. On the right, Flora showers her with rose petals, on the left, Apollo plays the violin. The sketch is written in the style of divisionism or pointillism. The artist, combining pointelle with short separate strokes of different lengths and directions, creates a very dynamic, swirling flow of symbolic air, in places reminiscent of the stellar Milky Way.
Pointillism is based on the refusal to physically mix colors for the sake of an optical effect: it means “mixing” colors directly on the retina of the viewer’s eye. For this purpose, the picture is painted with separate, non-isolated strokes of a regular, point-like shape. Since mixing paints inevitably produces a gray tint, separate application of pure, unmixed paints allows the artist to obtain the most “ringing” colors in the painting. This approach undoubtedly enhances the decorative qualities of the painting.