Raymond Martin (1910–1992) - Nu

Raymond Martin French Artist (1910–1992)

Nude
Fauvism Paris School. Creation in the 70s.
Lithograph on molded vellum paper. Edition no. 77 / 150
Signed on the plate at the bottom right
Hand-signed RM 77/150 at the bottom right
Provenance: "Bureau Comparaison 2026"
Lithograph in excellent condition

Biography

Raymond Martin (1910–1992) is a French sculptor whose work, at once pared down and expressive, holds a singular place in 20th-century art. Born in 1910 in Paris, he fits into the tradition of figurative sculpture while renewing it through a quest for formal synthesis and silent spirituality. A student at the École des Beaux-Arts, he quickly distinguished himself by a classical rigor allied with modern sensitivity.
His art focuses on the representation of the human figure, mainly feminine, in full, smooth, almost timeless forms. His sculptures, often in bronze or stone, evoke serenity, gentleness, and inner concentration. The influence of Maillol is felt in the search for balance and stable volumes, but Raymond Martin quickly imposes a personal language, more sober, aimed at the essential.

Winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1938, he stayed at the Villa Medici before returning to France, where he regularly exhibited at the Salon and received numerous public commissions. He notably created several religious and monumental works, combining formal austerity with a sacred presence.

Raymond Martin died in 1992, leaving behind a discreet yet powerfully inhabited body of work, marked by a silent humanism and a search for simple and universal beauty.

"The art of Raymond Martin reminds us that it matters to invent beyond any system and to strive by every means to draw from the most universally recognized perfections the reasoned and independent feeling of one’s own person: it takes as much patience as self-denial to reach one’s goal, to have belonged to no school in order to “pass the bar,” to symbolically cross the sandbank of doctrines or, in Olympic terms, to jump higher."
Never has Raymond Martin’s invention been more transparent, more refreshing at the very sources of the art of tomorrow. A life devoted to the pursuit of absolute beauty, boundless passion, and art without taboos." Michel Faré, French writer Member of the Institute of France.