Two French galleries have teamed up to present a massive retrospective of French artist Jacques Martin-Ferrières (1892–1973), the son of Post-Impressionist Henri Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943).
Martin-Ferrières, whose work has sold for as much as $72,000 at auction, according to the Artnet Price Database, trained with his father before studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, developing a style featuring heavy impasto. He fought for the French resistance during World War II, resuming his artistic efforts in peacetime even after the loss of an eye as prisoner of war.
Although he won several honors during his lifetime, his work was neglected for many years before Paris’s Galerie Maket honored him with a solo show, “Voyages,” in 2014.
Now, the dealer is combining forces with Galerie Alexis Pentcheff in Marseille to give the artist the attention he has long deserved.
“During his life, Martin-Ferrières had some solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries in France and abroad, but since his death, he has been quite unfairly forgotten,” Alexis Pentcheff told Artnet News in an email.
Around 150 works will be split between the two galleries for the exhibition.
“Martin-Ferrières followed the steps of Impressionists… but he definitely has his own style, modern style,” Pentcheff added. “Winter’s light, sunset on monuments on the city, moonlight on the roofs… are his favorite subjects.”
Travel was a passion for Martin-Ferrières, and his depictions of countries such as Italy, Portugal, Russia, Greece, Spain, and Yugoslavia set his oeuvre apart.
“We also discover it through its eyes,” Pentcheff said. “His way of life was like mixing practice of painting and travelling. For example, he went to US in the ’60s by boat with his caravan ‘Pigeon Vole,’ and drove across Utah and Colorado.”
The artist is also known for his “foule,” or crowd scenes paintings, which Pentcheff described as one of the artist’s obsessions. These range from depictions of everyday markets to Paris’s annual Salon des Arts Ménagers, a home goods expo at the Grand Palais that he visited in the 1950s and ’60s.
See more works from the show below.
“Intimité et Horizons” is on view of Galerie Alexis Pentcheff, 131-133 Rue Paradis, Marseille, and Galerie Maket, 17 avenue de Messine, Paris.