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Lot Essay
Much like his radical contemporaries who came to be known as the Impressionists after 1874, the Belle Époque artist Marie-François Firmin-Girard was fascinated by urban life. Paris's bustling city streets with its outdoor vendors and modern cafés frequented by elegantly dressed men and women provided artists with a wealth of previously unexplored subjects. Firmin-Girard recorded these scenes with keen attention to detail, providing viewers with an intriguing glimpse of fin-de-siècle Paris.
The present work memorializes the view from the artist’s studio on the Boulevard de Clichy looking toward the Place Pigalle. The area was popular with artists and writers, and many locations important to cultural life in Paris during the Belle Époque can be identified in Firmin-Girard’s composition. Across the square, the pink building is the Abbaye de Thélème (1 Place Pigalle), named in honor of Rabelais’s fictional monastery (the motto, which was painted over the door was, 'Fais ce que vouldras'). It had opened in 1886 in a home which had previously belonged to Díaz de la Peña who had let out studio space to artists such as Fromentin, Jongkind, and Monet, among others. Also visible is the Café Pigalle (7 Place Pigalle), better remembered for its nickname ‘Le Rat Mort’, which was a popular meeting place for artists such as Courbet and Manet, and was later painted by Toulouse-Lautrec. Across the street from Le Rat Mort was the Nouvelle Athènes, perhaps the best known of the cafés today, which was painted by Degas.
Firmin-Girard clearly spent considerable time observing the square’s denizens, and preparatory sketches exist for several of the figures represented, including the locksmith at lower center. The artist depicted another larger version of the square, this time playing host to a fun fair, in around 1908. Also visible in that work is the same omnibus at right. The omnibuses had transformed urban life in the 19th century, making public transit easily accessible to the masses. While by the first decade of the 20th century many of the lines had converted to steam or electric power, horse-drawn omnibuses were still a common sight as well.
We are grateful to Patrick Faucheur, great-grandson of Marie François Firmin-Girard, for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included in his forthcoming Firmin-Girard catalogue raisonné.
The present work memorializes the view from the artist’s studio on the Boulevard de Clichy looking toward the Place Pigalle. The area was popular with artists and writers, and many locations important to cultural life in Paris during the Belle Époque can be identified in Firmin-Girard’s composition. Across the square, the pink building is the Abbaye de Thélème (1 Place Pigalle), named in honor of Rabelais’s fictional monastery (the motto, which was painted over the door was, 'Fais ce que vouldras'). It had opened in 1886 in a home which had previously belonged to Díaz de la Peña who had let out studio space to artists such as Fromentin, Jongkind, and Monet, among others. Also visible is the Café Pigalle (7 Place Pigalle), better remembered for its nickname ‘Le Rat Mort’, which was a popular meeting place for artists such as Courbet and Manet, and was later painted by Toulouse-Lautrec. Across the street from Le Rat Mort was the Nouvelle Athènes, perhaps the best known of the cafés today, which was painted by Degas.
Firmin-Girard clearly spent considerable time observing the square’s denizens, and preparatory sketches exist for several of the figures represented, including the locksmith at lower center. The artist depicted another larger version of the square, this time playing host to a fun fair, in around 1908. Also visible in that work is the same omnibus at right. The omnibuses had transformed urban life in the 19th century, making public transit easily accessible to the masses. While by the first decade of the 20th century many of the lines had converted to steam or electric power, horse-drawn omnibuses were still a common sight as well.
We are grateful to Patrick Faucheur, great-grandson of Marie François Firmin-Girard, for confirming the authenticity of this work, which will be included in his forthcoming Firmin-Girard catalogue raisonné.