La Place de Clichy

011092   G. PAYEN [19th/20th c.] La Place de Clichy
oil on panel, 34,5 x 26 cm, signed l.r. "G. Payen"
 

G. Payen, a painter of French descent. Like Luigi Loir, Eugéne Galien-Laloue or Édouard Cortès, he found inspiration in the images of a busy city life. He painted mostly vedutes of Paris at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century. Paris, in the eyes of the artist, turned out to be not only a city of monumental architecture, stretched rows of tenement houses, rushing carriages, stagecoaches, and horse-trams. The image of the city was determined by people shown during afternoon strolls, on their ways to cafés, opera or dancing treats. Payen, like his contemporaries, was interested in photography. The composition of the: Parisian Ball, An Elegant Lady at the Place de l’Opera orLa Place de Clichy, was based on a snapshot framing, which increases the sense of a movement. With fast and gentle brushstrokes he gave his paintings an impressional character.