Gabriel Loppé ( 1825 - 1913 )
Paris with St. Augustin and the Eiffel Tower seen from the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre, 1889
Paris with St. Augustin and the Eiffel Tower seen from the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre, 1889
oil on unlined canvas
15 x 19¾ in.
signed and dated lower left: 30.4.89
inscribed on a label on the verso in the artist’s hand:
Vue d’ouest de Paris ..Peint sur le Moulin de la Galette, …
item sold
Reminiscent of van Gogh’s 1882 panorama of the same view, this atmospheric oils on canvas is the second known cityscape of Paris by Loppé.
As is well documented, the painter was semi-obsessed with the Eiffel Tower but what makes this painting so compelling is that it was painted the month after the tower opened to the public, the year of the Exposition Universelle in April 1889. With its hazy sweeping vista it looks like a Pissarro or a Caillbotte and just shows what a first rate artist he was even away from the mountains.
The vista today from the Moulin de la Galette has changed relatively little since Loppé’s time and the building shown on the rue Lepic, right in the foreground is still there.