[1] Martin is known for his early 1920s work on the walls of the Salle de l'Assemblée générale, where the members of the Conseil d'État meet in the Palais-Royal in Paris.

[3][4] Born at 127 Grande-Rue Saint-Michel in Toulouse to a French cabinet maker and a mother of Italian descent, Martin successfully persuaded his father to permit him to become an artist.

The year after he won his first medal, Martin was awarded a scholarship for a tour in Italy, where he studied the work of veterans such as Giotto and Masaccio alongside Edmond Aman-Jean and Ernest Laurent.

After a decade of searching for an ideal home, Martin bought the Domaine de Marquayrol, overlooking the village of Labastide-du-Vert, near Cahors.

In a 2020 portrait by Le Monde, Raphaëlle Rérolle writes about Martin painting at Labastide-du-Vert: "The elders of this Lot village say that when [the children] left class, [they] were not allowed to stop near him.