Guy Charon (1927-2021), Paris, The Seine, The Austerlitz Bridge, Circa 1960

Charon, Guy
Ecueillé, Indre, February 4, 1927 – January 29, 2021

Paris, the Seine, the Austerlitz Bridge, circa 1960
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right “Charon”
H. 60 cm. / L. 73 cm.

Label on the back of the stretcher from Galerie Stiébel, Paris (30, rue de Seine, 6^th. arrondissement).

Work cleaned and varnished by a professional restorer.

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This painting depicts the Pont d’Austerlitz in Paris, seen from the Left Bank of the Seine looking north-east. The bridge’s deep blue iron arch stands prominently at the centre of the composition, linking the two banks in a taut curve. On the left, a row of bare trees lines the quay, while on the right a stone embankment forms a steep diagonal. In the background, Haussmann-style buildings in the Salpêtrière district close the scene beneath a sky animated by fast-moving clouds.

The composition relies on a dialogue between oblique and curved lines: the sinuous course of the river, the outlines of the quays, the silhouettes of the trees, and the arc of the bridge. The space is constructed with precision but without rigidity, the arrangement approaching a musical rhythm. The viewer’s gaze isnaturally led towards the horizon by the visual cadence of trees and reflections.

The brushwork is brisk and textured, laid down in tight, almost hatched strokes. The winter palette blends muted blues, greyish greens, browns and pale ochres, punctuated with highlights of white and black. The water’s surface is renderedin layered patches of colour, evoking the feel of engraving or lithography. The overall atmosphere suggests a cold late afternoon, captured with great economy of means.

This work reflects the graphic maturity of Guy Charon, who excels at translating urban motifs into a personal language of supple lines, subtle colourmodulations and formal clarity. Far from picturesque illustration, it offers apoetic yet architecturally structured vision of the Parisian landscape.

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Charon, Guy
Ecueillé, Indre, February 4, 1927 – January 29, 2021

French painter and lithographer.

Guy Charon settled in Paris in 1951. From 1954 onwards, he exhibited regularly at the major Parisian salons, including the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Salon d’Automne. He also took part in group exhibitions at the Galerie Charpentier, within events dedicated to the painters of the École de Paris. Beginning in 1956, his paintings and lithographs were the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in France and abroad, notably in the United States, Venezuela, Switzerland, Monaco, Norway, Sweden and Japan.

His works are today held in several public collections, including the Bibliothèquenationale de France, the Petit Palais (8^th arrondissement, Paris), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Palais de Tokyo, 16^th arrondissement), the François Mitterrand Foundation, the museum of Saint-Cyprien, and the Oscar Ghez Collection (1905-1998) at the Petit Palais in Geneva. In the United States, a watercolour is housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The artist was also the subject of several French documentary films produced in1960, 1983 and 1985. Known for his brightly coloured landscapes, tranquil scenes and urban views, he developed a distinctive style characterised by vivid, Fauvist-inspired colours softened by rounded forms and fluid lines. His graphic approach, particularly in lithography, is occasionally likened to that of Raoul Dufy (1877-1953). He has sometimes been referred to as “the painter of happiness”.

The work presented here belongs to his early period and reflects a figurative aesthetic aligned with the Jeune Peinture de l’École de Paris (New School of Paris), also referred to as the Nouvelle École de Paris (Young painting from the School of Paris).

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