The Married Couple Study for Reapers 1903

Henri Martin’s 'The Married Couple Study for Reapers' is a painting in which colour is built up through layers of small brushstrokes, alive with movement. You can see the artist feeling his way through the canvas, adding tiny dabs of paint, a dance of colour that creates form but also light and atmosphere. What were Martin's concerns while making this painting? He and the generation before him were all trying to figure out how painting could be modern; how could painting be new, be free? I see him pushing and pulling the paint, looking for something just beyond his grasp. Look at the way the light falls on the man’s white shirt, how it blends into the background, and the textures that emerge as these tiny strokes come together. It’s as though he’s building a mosaic, a conversation between color and light. It reminds me of other painters who were obsessed with light and how it defines our perception, like Monet. That little yellow patch there makes me think of the Van Gogh. It’s like a little shout-out to another artist. Painting is like one big conversation, across time and space, isn't it?