Louis Marie de Schryver

Private Collection, United States
Sale: Christie’s, New York, February 14. 1996, lot 129, illustrated
Richard Green, London
Private Collection, Jersey

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has been successfully lined with a non-wax adhesive. The primary reason for the lining seems to be a diagonal break in the canvas, running horizontally from the column at the end of the street on the right through the top hat of the cab driver. Restorations are visible under ultraviolet light here along this thin break and in a few other spots above and below it. It seems that this is the only real restoration to the work, aside from a few spots in the blouse of the flower seller in the lower left quadrant and another spot or two in the upper left corner. The work is obviously in very fresh condition and should be hung in its current state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

As a member of the privileged upper class, Louis Marie de Schryver innately understood the spirit of the Belle Époque and the leisure activities of the fashionable set.  The artist developed a special interest in the proliferation of flower vendors in Paris, and chose them as the central subject of his oeuvre. In the present work, two smartly dressed women consider the bounteous and varied blooms offered from thirty to fifty centimes for the choicest specimens while the vendor patiently braces herself as she supports the heavy basket.  The floral display mirrors the costume of the lady dressed in a pink and purple pattern, her pale yellow hat matching the form and color of the roses on offer.  Her companion's chic blue-gray costume expertly coordinates with the pale tones of the bouquet she has just purchased. The day's flowers secured, the lovely pair will join fellow strollers along the rue de Rivoli, one of Paris' most famous streets flanked by arcade facades running past many of the city's popular landmarks. In the present work, de Schryver depicts the intersection of the rue de Rivoli with the rue de Castiglione which leads to the Place Vendôme, its easily recognizable column rising in the distance. In the late nineteenth century this area became a center for the fashionable set, heavily trafficked, with many of the city's best and most expensive hotels located nearby. De Schryver captures a group of travelers gazing at the busy street from the balcony of the Hôtel Continental opened in 1879 on the past site of the Ministry of Finance (destroyed during the Commune of 1871).  As George Augustus Sala wrote soon after its opening: the hotel, an "overwhelmingly-sumptuous place of entertainment," signified that "to the affluent classes among my own countrymen, the Rue de Rivoli seems almost entirely to belong" (Paris, Herself Again in 1878-9, London, 1879, p. 158).  Indeed, nearly everything in de Schryver's composition suggests the affluence of the locale, its visitors, and even their canine companions. In the late nineteenth century, poodles were a consistent status symbol, and many sunny afternoons were spent taking the animal to be washed, clipped, and then walked to show off the latest grooming styles. The social ritual was elaborately described in Theodore Child's The Praise of Paris: "The dog-clipper, like the human hair dresser, is an artist; he studies each subject in each case according to the character of the poodle.  To one he gives a modest and unobtrusive head, and cuts the hair about his nose so that the mustache remains. All these niceties and finesses the flâneur observes and notes" (New York, 1893, p. 40).  Like the flâneur of the era, de Schryver's vibrant composition allows today's viewer to stroll along the Paris streets taking in the chic sites from an exclusive hotel, to beautiful blooms, to a proud poodle.