Raymond Besse (1899–1969) "rue Quincampoix, Old Paris"

Oil on canvas
55 × 46 cm (70 × 61 cm with black moulded wood frame)
Signed lower right
Having arrived in Paris in 1916, Raymond Besse exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants from 1923, then at the Salon d'Automne. He devoted a large part of his work to the popular neighbourhoods of Paris — Montmartre, Saint-Ouen, Clichy — and his paintings are today considered valuable records of urban life in the first half of the 20th century.
This oil painting depicts the Rue Quincampoix, one of the oldest streets in Paris, located in the Marais district between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. Known since the Middle Ages, it still retains today its medieval facades and half-timbered buildings, easily recognisable to this day. Besse captures it in full daily animation — hurrying figures on the cobblestones, shop signs, facades narrowing towards the sky — rendered in thick and generous impasto, in the post-impressionist tradition.