Venice, Henri Saintin (1846-1899)

Gorgeous luminist view over Venice. A woman on a deck is looking to the island of Venice, straight in front of the Basilica Santa Maria della Salute. Splendid impressionist technique where the painter attributes a primordial role to light and proceeds in such a way as to emphasize the contrasts of light and shadow. Oil on canvas, signed lower right Henri Saintin. On the back, a red wax seal “Vente SAINTIN 1900”, proving this work was sold at the Paris 1900 sale of the artist’s workshop right after his passing. Also dedicated on the back “à Maurice, Louis & Juliette”. Original frame. A beautiful work.

Size: H 46 cm x W 61 cm – H 69 cm x W 84 cm

French school of the late 19th century.

Lit: Henri Saintin (1846-1899) was a painter from Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne). He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Isidore Pils (1815-1875), landscape painter Alexandre Ségé (1818-1885) and Charles-Edmé Saint-Marcel (1819-1890). He took his first steps as a painter at Salon in 1867 and found his inspiration in the Paris region and the forest of Fontainebleau. He discovered Brittany around 1875, thanks to his painter friends Francis Blin and Alexandre Ségé. He settled on the Penthièvre coast (Côtes-d'Armor) near Erquy and made a few excursions to the Montfort-sur-Meu region around 1880. Long stays in Brittany and the Côte-d'Or, studies of Paris and its suburbs, and then a trip to Italy, had given him an appreciation of beautiful lines and limpid, colourful light; he belonged to the school of Corot, Troyon, Rousseau and Daubigny; he already possessed the accuracy of drawing to which he added the correctness of tone and the sincere, wide-ranging execution of the modern landscape school. Gifted with great qualities of observation and proportion, his drawing, facture and touch were always sober and to scale, according to the size of the painting or the simple nature study. In 1890, he joined the dissident artists behind the split of the Salon into two exhibitions, and until his death in 1899, he exhibited at the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts. Despite a few awards, his fame remained modest.
‘He was happy to give paintings, even studies, to amateurs, especially when he knew them. The sorrow of seeing his paintings go was softened by the certainty of seeing them well placed and the hope of seeing them again. His modesty, this need to preserve his works, limited his reputation and accumulated productions in his studio’. (extract from the 1900 sale catalogue, author Brame Hector)
He died in July 1899.
Three hundred and eight of his works were sold at auction at Hôtel Drouot in 1900.
Works by Louis-Henri Saintin are on display in French museums, including the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée du Louvre, Department of Graphic Arts, the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, the Musée Fabre in Montpellier and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes.