Born in Toulouse to a French cabinet maker and a mother of Italian descent, Martin had to persuade his father to allow him to take up the uncertain career of an artist. He began his career in 1877 at the Toulouse School of the Fine Arts, where he was under the tutelage of Jules Garipuy (who had studied with Delacroix). In 1879, Martin moved to Paris receiving a scholarship to study with Jean-Paul Laurens. Four years later, he received his first medal at the Paris Salon, and exhibited a group of paintings there in 1886.
In 1884 he was awarded a state scholarship to tour Italy where he was able to study art from Giotto and Masaccio to the late Renaissance, travelling with Ernest Laurent and the symbolist Edmond Aman-Jean who influenced his choice of subjects at this time. By the time of his return he had adopted the more pointillist style of the neo-impressionists, but more spontaneous than mathematical in its approach. During the late 1880s and early 1890s he maintained his interest in symbolism, exhibiting at the Salon de Rose-Croix and obtaining several important state commissions including in the Hotel de Ville de Paris, the Elysées Palace and a large decoration in the Council of State.
He received a gold medal at the 1889 Salon and, unusually for someone so young, the award of the Legion of Honour. At the 1900 World Fair, he was awarded the Grand Prize for his work.
Unhappy with the pressure of Paris life he acquired a home in the Lot, north of his birth place, Toulouse, in the hamlet of Marquayrol. This became the setting for so many of his mature works as did the port of Collioure, where he purchased a summer home. Our painting is a view he often painted from the terrace of his home, this scene a dramatic representation of autumn colours.