Georges Jules Victor Clairin

Sale: Aguttes, Paris, 6 October 2004, lot 30
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Clairin's carnival scene unfolds at the foot of the Colonna di San Marco with the church of San Maggiore visible across the Grand Canal. Cloaked and masked figures walk past pedestrians and pigeons while a troupe of actors dressed as characters from the commedia dell'arte perform at right in view of the Marciana Library, whose façade is delineated but largely unpainted.

Known as "Jojette" to his friends, Clairin was a close friend of many of the artists, writers, musicians, and actors that animated Belle Époque Paris including the famed actress and sculptor Sarah Bernhardt. Clairin made a number of paintings and watercolors in Venice on visits in the early 1890s, focused primarily on elegant genre scenes and elaborate festivals.