Rue des Saules , circa 1872

Oil on canvas board

Signed lower right, located on the back

Dimensions: 24 x 34.5 cm

Stanislas Lépine painted the “Rue des Saules” a little before 1872. A second view of the street, dated between 1872 and 1876 (Artcurial, June 17, 1997), shows the gas lanterns hanging on the wall. The painter features the facade of n ° 22, that of the “Agile Rabbit”, one of the privileged meeting places of Bohemia at the beginning of the 20th century.

The spectator's attention is drawn to the deserted streets of old Paris and those of the capital at the dawn of the industrial era. He paints with a free and raised touch, his colorful palette magnifies the nuances of stone and nature.

Stanislas Lépine is a French painter student of Jean-Baptiste Corot (1796-1875), master of the French naturalistic landscape of the 19th century. Corot offers Lépine the brushes and the vision of nature which he applies to that of urban life.

Notoriously, Lépine took part in the first exhibition of the Impressionists in Paris. He rubs shoulders with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and Renoir. If he does not relate to the movement from a point of view of plastic research, he joins the attraction of the Impressionists for the Paris of modernity.