Yuri Kuzmin, 1949 | Belle Époque painter

Yuri Kuzmin / Юрий Кузьмин is a Russian painter, widely known for his highly detailed, nostalgic depictions of Parisian cityscapes during the Belle Époque era.

Consistent with the artists previously discussed, he belongs to the classic Soviet-era lineage of painting.

Though Russian by birth, Kuzmin developed an intense fascination with France.

He lived there for extended periods, and his primary artistic focus became the streetscapes of old Paris.

His work heavily captures the "Beautiful Era" of Paris (late 19th to early 20th century).

Paris, the artistic rebirth for Chagall

In 1910, the Russian and French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985) left Russia for Paris: "I felt that, if I stayed in Vitebsk any longer, I should be covered with hair and moss», he wrote in his autobiography.

A year later, in La Ruche, he came into contact with the artistic community of the nearby quarter of Montparnasse and made friends with Guillaume Apollinaire (who would define his work "supernatural"), Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger and Blaise Cendrars, the poet who, from that point on, would name all his French works.

Audrey Hepburn: "Paris is always a good idea!"

• "I love the night passionately.

I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love.

I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness.

Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light.

The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space" - Guy de Maupassant

Gustave Eiffel: "I ought to be jealous of the tower. She is more famous than I am"..

• "There is but one Paris and however hard living may be here, and if it became worse and harder even - the French air clears up the brain and does good - a world of good" - Vincent van Gogh.

Michel Delacroix, 1933 | Paris painting in Naïf style

French painter Michel Delacroix is an acclaimed master of the Naïf tradition and one of the most popular and successful artists in the world today.

Artist Michel Delacroix studied at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand.

Delacroix was educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and spent years experimenting with several different painting styles until, at the age of 35, he began producing works in the Naïf tradition, his characteristic style.

Sara Teasdale | Paris in spring

The city's all a-shining

Beneath a fickle sun,

A gay young wind's a-blowing,

The little shower is done.

But the rain-drops still are clinging

And falling one by one -

Oh it’s Paris, it's Paris,

And spring-time has begun.

Guy Dessapt, 1938 | Modern impressionist painter

As a child, Guy Dessapt, Impressionist painter - showed an enthusiastic aptitude for painting which led him to the highly acclaimed Art Decoratifs School in Paris.

Here he learned about the masters of genre and grew to respect the impressionists of the 1800's.

At this time, Guy spent many days painting in the streets of Montmarte which provided him with direct exposure to a thriving arts community.

Eugene Galien-Laloue | Belle Époque painter

French painter Eugène Galien-Laloue (1854-1941) was born in Paris on 1854.

He was a populariser of street scenes, usually painted in autumn or winter.

His paintings o f the early 1900s accurately represent the era in which he lived: a happy, bustling Paris, la Belle Époque, with horse-drawn carriages, trolley cars and its first omnibuses.

Galien-Laloue's works are valued not only for their contribution to 20th century art, but for the actual history, which they document.

Paul Renard | Impressionist painter

French artist Paul Renard (1871-1920) was studied at Rotterdams Academy of Art.

He spent most of his career painting narrative street scenes of Paris for which he became renowned.

His is a well listed artist and his work can be found in galleries throughout the world.

Konstantin Korovin | Il maestro dell'Impressionismo

Il pittore e scenografo, Konstantin Korovin / Константи́н Коро́вин (Mosca, 1861 - Parigi, 1939) è stato uno dei maggiori rappresentanti russi dell'Impressionismo.

Korovin è nato il 23 novembre 1861 a Mosca da una famiglia di mercanti, che in realtà, però, risultano da alcuni documenti ufficiali come "contadini della regione di Vladimir Gubernia".

Suo padre, Aleksey Mikhailovich Korovin, conseguì una laurea e si interessò molto alle arti ed alla musica che diffondeva, perfino, nell'azienda di famiglia fondata dal nonno di Korovin.

Ilya Repin | A Parisian Café, 1875

Repin's time as an academic pensioner in Paris 1873-76 was a fruitful as well as confusing time for the rising young star of Russian realist painting and he responded to a bewildering variety of new stimuli with enthusiasm and uncertainty, painting both Russian motifs as well as the sights of contemporary France.

In particular it was a period of burgeoning experimentation as Repin (1844-1930) took cognisance of modern French artistic developments, the major outcome of which was his large canvas "A Parisian Café", which was sold in London in June 2011 for a record price by the artist.

Dorothy Spangler, 1928 | Parisienne walkways

Inspired by the great impressionist masters, Dorothy Spangler paints enchanting European scenes.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Dorothy Spangler has spent most of her life in Northern California, which provides a perfect environment for her love of color and light.

After graduating from the College of San Mateo with a major in art, she studied for several years under the distinguished California plein-air painter, William Ward of Los Altos.

Paris painting

"Paris is an ocean.

Explore it, and you still won’t know its depths".

-

Honoré de Balzac

"Parigi è come un oceano. Gettateci una sonda e non ne conoscerete mai la profondità.

-

Honoré de Balzac

Thierry Duval, 1957 | Paris watercolors

Thierry Duval was born in Paris, France.

His watercolors are characterized by a strong light and precision in drawing, being almost or hyperrealist in the results mainly in his Paris watercolors.

By using glazing technique he works in several steps up to get the final, very realistic result.

As was said, light is strong in almost all his artworks.

Jean Béraud | Belle Époque painter

Jean Béraud (January 12, 1848 - October 4, 1935) was a French painter renowned for his numerous paintings depicting the life of Paris, and the nightlife of Paris society.

Pictures of the Champs Elysees, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian life during the "Belle Époque".

He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting.

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon, 1897

Rue Saint-Honoré, dans l'après-midi. Effet de pluie ("Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain") is an 1897 oil painting by Camille Pissarro.

The work was made towards the end of Pissarro's career, when he abandoned his experiments with Pointillism and returned to a looser Impressionist style.

It is part of a series of works that Pissarro made in 1897-98 from a window of the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, looking down across the edge of the Place du Théâtre Français (now the Place André-Malraux) and along the rue Saint-Honoré, portraying the people, carriages and buildings, the trees, fountains and streetlamps, in an early afternoon shower of rain.

Camille Pissarro | Rue Saint-Honoré, in the afternoon. Effect of rain, 1897 | Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Pablo Picasso | Boulevard de Clichy, Paris, 1901

Artists from all countries came to Paris to find a connection to the modern era.

On his first trip to Paris, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted a street in Montmartre, the neighborhood that was popular among artists, in the Impressionist style.

The picture is part of a group of about thirty works that the then nineteen-year-old artist presented at his solo exhibition in the Galerie Ambroise Vollard in 1901 in Paris. | Source: © Museum Barberini, Potsdam

Pablo Picasso | Boulevard de Clichy, Paris, 1901 | Museum Barberini, Potsdam

Victor Dargaud | Paris painting

Victor Dargaud | The Statue of Liberty in Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi's Studio, Paris

Paul-Joseph-Victor Dargaud (1850-1921), a specialist in topographically accurate views of the fashionable boulevards of Paris, is little known today, although he exhibited at the Salon from 1873 until his death.

This painting, one of his best-known works, represents the fabrication of the Statue of Liberty.

Its sculptor, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, aspired to rival the sublime effect of such monuments as the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Because of its scale, Bartholdi had to construct Liberty in sections, as shown in this painting of the statue’s left arm.

Although the right arm of the statue was shipped to the United States in 1876 in time for the centennial, the entire statue was not completed until 1883.

Marc Chagall | Paris through my window, 1913

After Marc Chagall moved to Paris from Russia in 1910, his paintings quickly came to reflect the latest avant-garde styles.

In "Paris Through the Window", Chagall’s debt to the Orphic Cubism of his colleague Robert Delaunay is clear in the semitransparent overlapping planes of vivid color in the sky above the city.

The Eiffel Tower, which appears in the cityscape, was also a frequent subject in Delaunay’s work. For both artists it served as a metaphor for Paris and perhaps modernity itself.

Chagall’s parachutist might also refer to contemporary experience, since the first successful jump occurred in 1912. Other motifs suggest the artist’s native Vitebsk.

Marc Chagall | Paris through my window, 1913 | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

Claude Monet | Vita ed Opere

Claude-Oscar Monet (Parigi, 14 novembre 1840 - Giverny, 5 dicembre 1926) è stato un pittore Francese, considerato il padre dell'Impressionismo.

La formazione artistica

Claude Monet nacque nel 1840 a Parigi in rue Laffitte, secondogenito di Claude Adolphe e di Louise Justine Aubrée, una giovane vedova al suo secondo matrimonio. Nel 1845 i Monet si trasferirono a Sainte-Adresse, un sobborgo di Le Havre, dove il padre iniziò a gestire un negozio di drogheria e di forniture marittime insieme con il cognato Jacques Lecadre. A quindici anni l'adolescente Claude cominciò a disegnare a matita e a carboncino, e a vendere bonarie caricature di personaggi della città alla buona somma di una decina di franchi l'una, acquistando così una certa fama nella città insieme ad un modesto gruzzolo