Raul Martinez (1876–1974). Sunny afternoon in the courtyard of a Hasienda in Cuba.

Raoul Martinez (1876–1974, Neuilly-sur-Siene)

Sunny afternoon in the courtyard of a Hasienda in Cuba.
Oil on wooden tablet. In painted frame.
Dimensions with frame: cm 96 x 57
The painting represents a view of a colonial house, its garden and an outbuilding, in broad daylight. To the right of the main building, sheltered in the shade of a mighty tree are a table, chairs and garden pots with red flowers. All together from a poetic vision of Latin American country life, with the feeling of the pleasure of living and note of hedonism, supported by late impressionist technique, rare for this painter.

According to the RKD archive the painter was active in France, , Belgium,the Netherlands, Cuba.

The family of Cuban origin lived in France, where they had moved from Cuba following the crisis in the sugar trade. The future painter was essentially self-taught, but strongly influenced by the lively climate of pictorial experimentation in Paris. His best works gravitate to the stylistic area of ​​Cubism and Fauvism.

The painter maintained the link with his country of origin, Cuba, where he returned to the family farm ..or better Hasienda.

The present painting represents a country house, with strong sun of a hot country and colonial style buildings. These clues suggest a probable execution of the painting in Cuba.

Numerous paintings by the painter are present in museums in Northern Europe: in Utrecht and in particular in the KRÖLLER-MÜLLER Museum. After his stay in Cuba and some peregrinations in South America, he returned to Europe, first to Brussels where he lived from about 1896 to 1915.

In Brussels he began his career as a painter in 1907 and in 1910 he participated for the first time in the exhibitions of La Libre Esthétique.

During the First World War he fled to the Netherlands and befriended some Dutch artists (such as Henri Boot) and sold works to the collector HP Bremmer who introduced it to Helene Kröller-Müller .