Category Archives: Paris art

Nostalgic images of a vanishing city

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Parisian Fields

Photographs of Paris in the snow were big news earlier this month. We are Canadians. As Gilles Vigneault sang of this country, “Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver” (My country is not a country, it is winter). … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris nostalgia, Paris popular culture, Paris streets | Tagged commissionnaire, Curiosités de Paris, Edmond Morin, Franco-Prussian War, Grand Café d’Harcourt, Henri Boutet, Le Monde illustré, Neuvaine de Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, Neuvaine de Sainte Geneviève, omnibus, Serge Férat | 12 Comments

Starry starry night

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Parisian Fields

I am writing this on Sunday, December 24, and all I can think about is Vincent Van Gogh. Until recently, I had not realized that he’d cut off his ear on December 23 (which in 1888 was also a Sunday), … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris film | Tagged Arles, Auvers-sur-Oise, Bernadette Murphy, Don Maclean, Loving Vincent, Paul Gaugin, rue Lepic, Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum, St-Rémy, The Yellow House, Theo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh | 14 Comments

Footsteps and Sidetracks

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Parisian Fields

I sometimes think that if I had it all to do over again, I would become a biographer. I’ve no interest in writing fiction when real life is so fascinating. Even in my day-job as a researcher, I love tracking … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris history, Paris streets | Tagged André Lurçat, Boulogne-Billancourt, Fernand Léger, Gabriel Loire, Georgia O’Keeffe, Henri Matisse, Lucie Brownlee, Mary Callery, Pable Picasso, place du Marché St-Honoré, Quai de Voltaire, Richard Holmes, rue du Belvédère, St. George's Church, Villa d’Alésia | 14 Comments

A ghost at the Paris Salon

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Parisian Fields

On a recent visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Norman and I wandered into a room that was hung with paintings in the old-fashioned way, covering the walls, much as paintings were once hung at the Paris Salon, although … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris history | Tagged Académie Julian, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Barbizon, Brucebo, Caroline Benedicks, Giverny, Paris Salon, Salon jury, William Blair Bruce | 9 Comments

Voutch and the evolution of a cartoon style

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Parisian Fields

You know how it is: you notice something properly for the first time, and for the next while, you see it everywhere. So it was with us and the cartoons of Voutch (real name: Olivier Chapougnot). We had wandered along the … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris popular culture, Paris postcards | Tagged boomerang, Credit du Nord, Dominque Fertil, Editions Cherche-Midi, Galerie Dominique, Le Monde, Librairie Les Traversées, Madame Figaro, Olivier Chapougnot, Olivier Vouktchevitch, Psychologies, This is as Bad as it Gets, Voutch | 9 Comments

Learning to see: Emily Carr in France

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Parisian Fields

She arrived in Paris with her trunks, her sister Alice, and a malevolent grey parrot called Rebecca. She had purchased Rebecca in Liverpool, where the ship from Canada had docked, and brought the disagreeable bird the rest of the way by … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris history | Tagged Académie Colarossi, Concarneau, Crécy-en-Brie, Crécy-la-Chapelle, Cubism, Emily Carr, Fauvism, Growing Pains, Montparnasse, National Gallery of Canada, Salon d’Automne, Sister and I: From Victoria to London, St-Efflamme | 14 Comments

Paris in the year 2000, viewed from 1900

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Parisian Fields

It seems that humans cannot resist dabbling in predicting the future. We have an innate need to ignore Yogi Berra’s clear warning, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” So what did the year 2000 look like from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris popular culture | Tagged Albert Robida, Armand Gervais, Editions Renaud, En l'an 2000, Futuredays, Isaac Asimov, Jean-Marc Côté, Mariea Asimov, Public Domain Review | 12 Comments

Pierre Lelong: The search for a 20th-century Post-Impressionist painter

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Parisian Fields

“Is there a library or museum in Paris that will research a painting/artist for you? This is the painting Pop said he bought off a street artist in Paris in 1934 when he was at the Sorbonne. It’s oil on … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art | Tagged Atelier Julien, Bertrand Duplessis, Henri Curtil, Ivan Bettex, Jacques Ibert, Jean Minet, Jean-François Lelong, Marie Rose Salvatori, Mutualité Agricole, Peintres Témoins de leur Temps, Perre Lelong, Pierre-Emile Lelong, Post-Impressionism, Salon Comparaisons, Une Vie de Camp | 26 Comments

Pugin’s Picturesque Paris

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Parisian Fields

For us, no trip to Paris is complete without time browsing through racks, boxes or bins of old engravings of Paris. We find them at antique fairs, flea markets, galleries, book stores and many other places. Quite a few were … Continue reading →

Posted in Paris art, Paris history | Tagged Alexander Books, Andrea Quinlan, Augustus Charles Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Canal de l’Ourcq, Charles Heath, Fontaine de l’éléphant, Gordon Russell, Henry IV, Jennings and Chaplin, Kate Murdoch, L.T. Ventouillac, Lead shot, Marie de Medici, Napoleon Bonaparte, Paris and its Environs, Place Vendôme, Pont Neuf, Robert Jennings, Taylor-Murdoch-Beatty bookbinders, Toronto International Antiquarian Book Fair, Tour St. Jacques, William Watts | 11 Comments

A little mystery solved

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Parisian Fields

Curiosity, plus an interest in Paris, has led us to many surprising finds and some unusual encounters. A recent purchase at the Toronto International Antiquarian Book Fair is a case in point. It was a one-of-a-kind object: a handmade, illustrated, … Continue reading →