Xavier Martinez was a Mexican-born American artist of the late 19th and early 20th century. Made in a style of tonalism, his tenderly colored paintings were full of calm and poetry.
He also worked with lithographs, etchings and prints.
Background
Ethnicity:
Xavier Martinez’s father was born in Mexico and the artist’s mother was of a Spanish ancestry.
Xavier Martinez, born as Javier Timoteo Martinez y Orozco, came to the world on February 7, 1869, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was a son of Margarito Martinez y Suarez, an owner of a book shop, and Trinidad Orozco y Zúniga.
Xavier was surrounded by the artistic atmosphere from an early childhood. His father was a talented craftsman who produced leather book bindings. The young bot revealed his abilities to paint very early.
As a youngster, Martinez developed an interest in reading poetry, in particular, Goethe, Schiller, Heine and some French authors, translated into Spanish.
Education
Xavier Martinez received his general education at the grammar school for men in Guadalajara called ‘Liceo de Varones’ which he entered in 1882. While studying pre-Columbian archaeology, Martinez showed himself as a talented artist portraying his classmates and teachers.
The same time, Xavier took some lessons from his father's cousin who was also an artist. He taught Martinez the basis for fresco painting and how to mix oil and watercolors.
Using this knowledge, Martinez created a lithograph portrait of Tolentino which was featured in a local periodical. Inspired by such success, the young man strengthened himself in a decision of becoming a painter.
After his mother’s death, a seventeen-year-old Martinez was looked after by an aristocratic woman Rosalia LaBastida de Coney known for her philanthropic activity. In a couple of years, she sent her adopted son to San Francisco to pursue his artistic training.
While in the city, he enrolled at the California School of Design (currently San Francisco Art Institute) in 1893. He was taught by Arthur Frank Matthews, Amedee Joullin and Raymond Dab Yelland. In a couple of years, Martinez obtained a scholarship which allowed him to pursue his artistic training in Paris.
After graduating in 1897, the artist came to the capital of France where he became a student of the École des Beaux Arts (Academy of Fine Arts) attending Atelier Gérome. Three years later, he enrolled at the Academy of Eugène Carrière.
Besides, Xavier Martinez went to Spain and Italy. During the trip, he explored the art of the notable fresco painters such as Giotto and El Greco.
The beginning of Xavier Martinez’s professional career can be counted from the work at his father’s bookstore where the young boy did bookbinding routine tasks.
In 1895, he participated at San Francisco Art Association’s Winter Exhibition with the painting ‘Twilight, Monterey Bay’. The next year, the number of exhibited works rose to the eight canvases.
After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1897, he briefly assisted one of his teachers, Arthur Frank Matthews. Three years later, Martinez presented his ‘Miss Marion Holden’ at the Paris International Exposition. The canvas earned him great success.
In 1901, Xavier Martinez came back to San Francisco where he established a studio with Gottardo Piazzoni. Martinez positioned himself as a portraitist and continued to work on his landscapes of tonalism style. He was quickly involved in the local art community. So, the following year he co-founded the California Society of Artists.
To find inspiration for his artworks, Martinez traveled a lot. In 1905, the artist visited Arizona, Tepic and Guadalajara in Mexico. On his return, he had some exhibitions.
The Earthquake of 1906 destroyed Martinez’s studio with a great number of his artworks. Searching for other locations, the artist moved to Piedmont accompanied by his friend Herman Whitaker. The following year, Martinez founded the art gallery in Monterey's Hotel Del Monte.
In 1909, Xavier Martinez was invited to teach art at the California School of Arts and Crafts (currently California College of the Arts). The summer of this year, he was named instructor for still life and landscape painting in oil. Xavier Martinez had taught there until 1942. This time, Martinez also contributed to various periodicals, such as the CSAC Alumni Magazine, providing them with essays on art history. He continued to exhibit his artworks at the shows organized within Bohemian Club, San Francisco Artists' Society and other art associations.
From 1909 to 1914, the artist gave art lessons in the Monterey region. The next year, Martinez participated at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and exhibited at the Golden Gate Park Museum in San Francisco. He resumed his teaching activity working with pupils in his Piedmont studio.
The subsequent years, the artist exhibited around the United States, having the shows in New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
During the last two decades of his life, Xavier Martinez developed a kin interest in the culture of his homeland Mexico. He wrote poetry and philosophical essays for San Francisco's Spanish-language newspaper called ‘Hispano-Americano’.
This period was also rich in exhibition events. The show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1935 where the artist demonstrated ‘The Green Moon’ was followed by Golden Gate International Exposition four years later. At the beginning of the new decade, Martinez represented California at the New York World's Fair of 1940 along with Junipero Serra and William Keith.
Xavier Martinez was a sociable person and had a lot of friends from artistic circle. His acquaintances called him ‘Marty’.
Physical Characteristics:
Having black hair and wide eye shape, Xavier Martinez was a person of a bohemian style wearing corduroys, brilliant shirt of blue color and vivid crimson tie.
Quotes from others about the person
"His best pictures are perfectly delivered, and with this perfection of delivery is combined an unfailing artistic vision." Porter Garnett, art critic
"He is essentially a painter's painter. He is too sincere to be popular in the fullest sense. By the same token he appeals to the connoisseur. His most casual sketch inevitably arrests the attention of persons of taste and perception. He touches nothing without giving it the impress of an artistic consciousness." Porter Garnett, art critic
"Xavier Martinez is completely, and before all also, an artist. In his work, he disregards the demands of contemporary popular taste and seeks to produce something constructive that will ultimately prove to be a valuable contribution to American art and boar a message to posterity." Junius Craven, artist
Connections
Xavier Martinez met his future wife, Elsie Whitaker, the daughter of the writer Herman Whitaker, in Piedmont where the artist came after the earthquake of 1906. Elsie and Xavier married the following year on October 17. Martinez was elder than his beloved for twenty years.
Six years after the marriage, the couple had a daughter named Micaela. In 1923, the couple broke out but maintained good relations.
Micaela Martínez followed her father’s steps and became an artist. She changed her name to Micaela Martinez Ducasse after the marriage with the painter Ralph Ducasse.