Normandy Coast
Artist
Homer Dodge Martin
(American, 1836 - 1897)
Datec. 1882-86
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions13 3/8 x 22 1/2 in. (34 x 57.2 cm)
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineHarriet Russell Stanley Fund
Terms
Object number1949.11
DescriptionPossibly at the suggestion of his fellow tenant in the Tenth Street Studio Building, John LaFarge, Martin's first trip to France included a visit to Saint Cloud, a favorite retreat for Camille Corot, and to the by-then famous village of Barbizon. Frequently cited for his deep roots in French Barbizon painting, particularly the landscapes of Corot, Martin shared with many of his peers (Dwight Tryon, Alexander Wyant, and J. Francis Murphy, to mention a few) a disdain for the picturesque detail and the epic statement. (1) A studio painter, he relied on his memory for details, recording casual composition notes in charcoal sketches or oil studies, the latter often made in the Adirondacks during the summer. The results, when they came (Martin suffered from long fallow periods), held sentiments of a modest Impressionism suffused with elegiac moods and somewhat Whistlerian tonal harmonies."Normandy Coast" is an ideal example of all that Martin was-and was not. On the basis of Mussels Gatherers (1886; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), nearly a replica of Normandy Coast, we can date the New Britain painting to approximately 1884-86, toward the end of his second trip to France. Three horizontal bands-sky, grassy slope, and muddy sand at low tide-divide the scene evenly, with fisherwomen added near the center for scale and, secondarily, for local interest. Martin's figures, seldom seen in his landscapes, suggest rather than depict human toil and typically do not occupy center stage. His earlier short-lived taste for wide panoramas had been replaced, beginning in the seventies, with a preference for silhouetted land forms. His colors were chosen from a diverse palette of mixtures of his own making, generalized hues drawn from the mind rather than the eye. (2) Their generally dark tones may lessen the poetic charm of the Normandy coast, but seem also to strengthen the stark ruggedness usually associated with the subject.
PB
Notes:
1. For a discussion of Martin's high regard for Corot, see Martin, Homer Martin, pp. 9-10. Typically, Martin acquired this respect gradually, almost two decades after Corot and Barbizon painting had exerted a significant impact on American landscapists and several years after Martin had visited Barbizon in 1876.
2. Martin's paintings of Villerville and Honfleur are closely allied to his depictions of the New England coast, particularly Newport, Rhode Island (for example, "Wild Coast, Newport," National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.).
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