Francis Smith (1881-1961) - Watercolor Gouache La Kermesse Aux étoiles (20th Century)

Francis Smith (1881-1961) - watercolor La Kermesse aux étoiles (20th century) Watercolor gouache representing La Kermesse aux étoiles, a popular festival in the 1950s to celebrate the liberation of Paris. Signed lower right Visible at the Galerie Courcelles Antiquités, at 97 rue de Courcelles, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Born in 1881 and died in 1961, Francis Smith is a Franco-Portuguese painter of English origin. From 1907, he moved to Paris. He participated in several exhibitions in Portugal, such as the free exhibitions of 1911 and 1916 at the Galerie des Arts and he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from 1925. Around 1930, he married the sculptress Yvonne Mortier and obtained French nationality. He devoted himself from 1935 to his career in France, where he enjoyed uninterrupted success, Portugal remaining however one of his favorite subjects. His work is a long exploration of the memory of the places of his childhood. He depicts popular neighborhoods populated by people with animated conversations, frozen in a precise time where poetry moves.