Les toits

Henri Martin belonged to the generation just after the Impressionists, and in the 1890s he took up the divided touch of the Neo-Impressionists, building his pictures from many small separate strokes of colour laid side by side. Seen close, the surface breaks into flecks. Step back, and they fuse into light. A view over rooftops suited that method well, a field of tiles and chimneys where he could set warm and cool touches next to each other across the whole spread. Martin was never a strict follower of the system, and he loosened it, keeping his strokes softer and his colours quieter than a purist like Seurat would ever have allowed.