Signed and dated 1923, this painting depicts a French city in the early 20th century, suspended between 19th-century architecture and the atmospheres of the Belle Époque and Art Nouveau.
The urban scene opens onto a wide ochre-toned square, crossed by a bridge leading to a corner building with the sign “Musique”, probably a music shop. At the centre stands a monument with a draped male figure beside a sphere; at its base appears the solitary figure of an elderly woman, adding a note of melancholy to the silence of the square.
On the left a wrought-iron Art Nouveau canopy reflects the early 20th-century taste for elegant urban details, while around the square rise buildings with slate mansard roofs, dormer windows and numerous chimneys. The façades, alternating ochre with broad red-brick surfaces, stand like theatrical backdrops. What strikes the viewer is the architectural wisdom with which the artist constructs the space: clear perspectives, calibrated volumes and precisely drawn details give the canvas the solidity of an urban project conceived with the eye of an architect. In the distance, a hilly relief connects the city to the surrounding landscape.
Oil on canvas, signed lower right “B. Vandenmüller” and dated 1923.
Dimensions: 55 × 46 cm without frame; 68 × 58 cm with frame.
On the reverse, the canvas bears the French stretcher stamps with the standard size “10 F – 55 × 46 cm” and the anchor mark of a Parisian art supplier, as well as a printed label of Maison G. Jamin, framer and art dealer, 24–26 rue Bannier, Orléans, confirming the French origin of both canvas and frame.
Period giltwood frame.
Condition: good.
Little is known about B. Vandenmüller, a painter active in the early decades of the 20th century, yet this canvas remains a rare testimony of French urban painting between the wars, where monumentality, Belle Époque atmosphere and architectural precision intertwine with a discreet, melancholic tone.
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