Charles Hermans – Busy Street In Nice – Watercolor – Early 20th Century

Charles Hermans (1839–1924)
Lively Street in Nice
Watercolor on paper
29 x 16.5 cm (image size) — 44 x 31.5 cm with frame
Very good condition

Here is a watercolor painted with a light, fluid brushstroke, capturing the liveliness of a street in Nice at the end of the day. The viewer’s gaze follows a narrow street lined with light-colored buildings, beneath a striped awning stretched diagonally; on the right, a dark cypress tree frames the composition and echoes the blue-green sky glimpsed at the very top. On the light-drenched sidewalk, elegant figures pass one another—women in light-colored dresses, hats, and parasols—rendered with fluid, swift brushstrokes full of transparency, typical of work done from life.

Condition
Very good overall condition. The back of the sheet shows some soiling (photo attached), with no marks on the front. The composition is clear and the colors are well preserved. Modern burl-style wooden frame, in good condition (a few scratches).

Authentication and Provenance
The work is unsigned, but its attribution is supported by the stamp of the expert Patrick Roger-Binet (Dessins & Tableaux 1830–1930, 138 rue Saint-Honoré, Paris) affixed to the back of the sheet, accompanied by a handwritten note reading “Charles Hermans (1839–1924), watercolor (Nice, circa 1882).” The back of the frame bears a second inscription specifying the artist’s Belgian school and provenance: sold at the Hôtel Drouot, from a studio portfolio.

The Artist: Charles Hermans (Brussels, 1839 – Menton, 1924)
Charles Hermans is one of the leading figures of Belgian Realism. Trained in Brussels under François-Joseph Navez and Louis Gallait, then at the Atelier Saint-Luc, he completed his training in Paris in Charles Gleyre’s studio between 1858 and 1861. From 1862 to 1867, he lived in Italy, where Roman monastic life became one of his favorite subjects. He then traveled regularly throughout the Mediterranean region and Spain.

His reputation was established primarily at the 1875 Brussels Salon, where his large painting *At Dawn* caused a sensation—a work now housed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and considered a manifesto of social realism in Belgian painting. Hermans then exhibited at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair. He also became known for his scenes of high society and festivities from the Belle Époque—masked balls, dancers—painted with the same attention to the play of light and direct observation found in this watercolor from Nice. He died in Menton, on the French Riviera, in 1924, a region he had evidently continued to explore throughout his career.

Work on view at the gallery (07240)
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