Louis Chapuy - Jardins Ouvriers à Gerland, Lyon - Oil On Cardboard - Signed

Louis CHAPUY (1882 - 1967, France)
Jardins ouvriers à Gerland, Lyon
Huile sur carton
31.5 × 22.5 cm - 44 × 35 cm with frame
Signed lower right Louis Chapuy
Carved wood frame
Very good condition.

In the soft gray light characteristic of Lyon skies, Chapuy captures a corner of Gerland still intact: low houses with whitewashed walls, overgrown gardens encircled by wooden fences, red brick chimneys silhouetted against the sky, and in the right-hand corner, a blue doghouse. A touch of bright red - rose or climbing geranium - enlivens the center of the composition. Everything here breathes the popular, working-class Lyon of before the great urban restructurings, chronicled with tenderness and a remarkable economy of means.
The brushstroke is supple, direct, the drawing synthetic without being sketchy. We recognize Chapuy's distinctive style: the plein-air painter's speed of execution, the accuracy of values, and that unwavering attachment to the modest neighborhoods of his native city.

Location: inscription on the back, in the artist's handwriting: "Jardins à Gerland - Louis Chapuy".

Provenance: collection Patrice Martinaud, Lyon (label on back, no. 195).

Exhibition: Rétrospective Louis Chapuy, Salon d'Automne de Lyon, October 5 - November 11, 1968 (exhibition label on back, signed by president A. Muré).

Signature: lower right, Louis Chapuy.

Condition: very good. Frame: carved wood, 1960s period.

The artist
Louis Chapuy was born in Lyon in 1882 and died in Bron in 1967. A painter with a lifelong attachment to his native city, he became one of its most faithful visual chroniclers. In particular, he produced numerous views of Lyon's streets and working-class suburbs.

A great chronicler of working-class districts in and around Lyon in the twentieth century, he captured on cardboard or panel a working-class and faubourien world that has now largely disappeared beneath the concrete. His work, rooted in a realist and post-impressionist tradition, is characterized by accurate observation, sobriety of line and a particular sensitivity to the diffuse light of the Rhône skies.

He was a regular participant in Lyon's Salons. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Salon d'Automne de Lyon in 1968, the year after his death, testifying to the recognition he enjoyed in the regional art scene. A street in Lyon now bears his name.

Work on view at the gallery (07240).
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