If you are familiar with the City of Light, you will know that these are indeed the colours of Paris at dawn: soft light greys, mauves, pinks and blues that are as subtle as they are striking. Art critics agree that George Joubin''s strongest paintings depicts his native city, and here is a truly outstanding early work by the artist, dating from 1923. It depicts work on the banks of the Seine at the heart of the city - this (as a fellow Brit in Paris put it recently) would have been ''the HS2 of its time''. The bridge in the background is the Pont des Arts near the Louvre. Orphaned very early on by a father who had himself been a painter, Georges Joubin (1888-1983) was a pupil of Jean-Pierre Laurens at the Académie Julian in 1906, then studied under Gabriel Ferrier at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1908.Along with Maurice Asselin , Pierre Bonnard , Petro Créixams , André Dignimont and Jules Pascin, Joubin became a founding member of the ''Ecole de Montmartre'' artist movement. The group''s aim was to produce art that was ''not nourished by abstraction, but (by) plunging to the very roots of life''. Art critic Gérard Schurr observed Joubin''s sculptural ''no frills'' style of ''paintings built by contrasts, by oppositions of powerful colours.'' Georges Joubin exhibited at the Paris Eve Adam Gallery, the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts, the Salon des Tuileries, Salon d''Automne and Salon du Luxembourg during his lifetime. A major retrospective was dedicated to his work in 1988 at the Museum of Montmartre. Our oil on canvas measures 54 x 65 cm. It has been sensitively restored and fitted with tension bands. It is is framed in a wood sculpted ''Montparnasse'' frame, the overall size being 69.5 x 80 cm. Nous parlons français, und wir sprechen auch Deutsch! Paintings may be viewed in Norwich and in Paris, as well as in London and Cambridge by appointment. Please contact us if you would like further details and images of an artwork.Height is 54cm (21.3inches)
Width is 65cm (25.6inches)
Depth is 1cm (0.4inches)