L'Eglise de Labastide-du-Vert et le pont

This is Labastide-du-Vert, a small village in the Lot, west of Cahors, at the spot where the road crosses the little river Vert. The church, dedicated to Saint Carissime, stands just beyond the stone bridge, a short walk down the hill from the house where Henri Martin spent part of every year from 1900 until he died there in 1943. He painted the village throughout those four decades, and no date is recorded for this canvas, so it could come from almost any point in that span. The format is tall and narrow. Two thin tree trunks run up the whole height of the picture, and the low sun lays their shadows in long stripes across the grass towards the bridge.