Saint Germain Des Prés, Signed Frédéric Léon

This watercolor of the Place Saint Germain des Prés from the 1900s shows us the Paris of the Belle Époque where cars were still rare, very lively we see mostly horse-drawn carriages and handcarts, but the square also evokes post-war Paris, on the left we see the awning of the Café des Deux Magots. The famous district made the whole world dream, its cellars where jazz was played, the cultural life maintained by some famous figures such 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 of the sixth arrondissement, Place Furstenberg, Rue Saint Benoît, it is the proximity of the Odéon theater which is a stone's throw from the Church of Saint Sulpice, not far from the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Gardens, and its garden where it is good to sit, to take the time to dream, near the basin or the Medici fountain. And even if this watercolor dates from the beginning of the century it brings back to life, a whole forgotten Paris, through this representation. Léon Frédéric is a Belgian painter, he was born on August 26, 1856 in Brussels and died on January 25, 1940 in Shaerbeek. Son of a jeweler, he was apprenticed in 1871 to a painter and decorator, he attended evening classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. In 1874 he worked in the studio of Jean-François Portaels, then the following year rented a studio with some young painters. He failed the competition for the Prix de Rome, 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, Liège, Munich, Nice and Paris. He received a bronze medal and a gold medal in Paris at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, as well as 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. During the 1880s he became one of the most popular painters in Belgium. His works are featured in numerous museums, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the Royal Museums of Belgium in Brussels, the Ixelles Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Liège. In Paris, the Musée d'Orsay and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille. 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 dimensions: 45 cm x 58 cm. View dimensions: 29 cm x 42 cm.