Paris, the Seine and the Pont Marie, Ca 1910 Maurice Asselin (1882-1947) Camden Town Group , Walter Sickert's Close Friend Watercolour on Paper

A delicate watercolour by Maurice Asselin, depicting the Pont Marie spanning the Seine in Paris, with the tree-lined quayside and a succession of small boats moored along the riverbank. The work combines the immediacy of a sketch made directly from observation with Asselin's characteristic sensitivity to colour and light.

Dating from around 1910-15, the work displays the freshness and spontaneity of Asselin's early painting. The composition is rendered in a restrained palette of soft turquoise, blue-grey and pale green, with touches of warmer colour in the boats and stonework. Loosely applied washes, economical pencil outlines and generous areas of untouched paper give the scene an appealing sense of light and atmosphere. The beautifully simplified trees and the little boats give it a particular charm, while the broad, unpainted sky makes the composition feel remarkably modern for its time.

Maurice Asselin, Walter Sickert's close friend and the French artist most closely associated with the Camden Town Group, is one of the most exciting French artists of his generation. This was recognised by many of his contemporaries, including Sickert and Roger Fry.

In 1915, Maurice Asselin held a solo exhibition in London at Carfax & Co., a gallery closely associated with the Camden Town Group and, according to Paul Nash, ‘probably the most distinguished and exclusive gallery in London at this time’.

An exhibition of Asselin's work has also been held at the Musée de Pont-Aven, reflecting his association with the Pont-Aven movement during his years in Brittany.

Art critics have described Maurice Asselin's work as literary, sensitive and restrained. Walter Sickert called him ‘not only one of the most distinguished artists among the younger artists, but also one of the many sane and normal individualities who are really the important constituents of modern French painting’.

Asselin's paintings are held in museums around the world, from Moscow to New York and Christchurch, New Zealand. Four of his works are in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge owns an oil painting, as does The Hepworth Wakefield.

Our watercolour on paper measures 13 x 20 cm and is monogrammed at the lower right. Presented in its original mount, backed with acid free paper to protect the artwork and framed in a silvered oak frame, the overall size is 30 x 38 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.