Saint Germain des Prés, signed Frédéric Léon

This watercolor of the Place Saint Germain des Prés in the 1900s shows us the Paris of the Belle Époque, when cars were still a rarity. Very lively, we see mostly carriages and handcarts, but the square also evokes post-war Paris, with the marquee of the Café des Deux Magots on the left. The famous district has made the whole world dream, with its cellars where jazz was played, the cultural life nurtured by such renowned figures as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre, Françoise Sagan, Boris Vian and many others. Saint Germain des Prés is also the heart of Paris, with its picturesque little streets in the sixth arrondissement, Place Furstenberg, Rue Saint Benoît, the nearby Odéon theater, the Church of Saint Sulpice, not far from the Pantheon and the Jardin du Luxembourg, and its garden where you can sit and dream by the bassin or the Médicis fountain. And even though this watercolor dates from the turn of the century, it brings to life a whole forgotten Paris, through this representation.

Léon Frédéric was a Belgian painter, born in Brussels on August 26, 1856, and died in Shaerbeek on January 25, 1940. The son of a jeweler, in 1871 he was apprenticed to a decorative painter and attended evening classes at the Académie des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In 1874, he worked in Jean-François Portaels' studio, and the following year rented a studio with a number of young painters. He failed the Prix de Rome competition, but his father offered him the opportunity to travel to Italy from 1878 to 1879. In 1878, he exhibited at the Brussels Salon and made his debut with the Essor group, composed mainly of realist painters. He then exhibited in Brussels, Ghent, Lièges, Munich, Nice and Paris. He won bronze and gold medals in Paris at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, and a medal in Berlin in 1891. He was made a knight of the Order of Leopold and ennobled by King Albert I, who granted him the title of Baron. In the 1880s, he became one of Belgium's most popular painters.
His works can be found in numerous museums, in Antwerp at the Musée Royal des Beaux Arts, in Brussels at the Musées Royaux De Belgique, at the Musée d'Ixelles, at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Gand, at the Musée des Beaux Arts de Liège. In Paris at the Musée d'Orsay and in Lille at the Palais des Beaux Arts. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki.
Signed lower right.
Frame size 45 cm x 58 cm.
View size 29 cm x 42 cm.

Ref: AG89PIJZ5C