Victor Gabriel Gilbert

Sale: Christie's, Paris, 20 June 2007, lot 90
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

This luminous watercolor by Victor Gilbert captures a charming encounter between a fashionably dressed young woman and a flower seller in a bourgeois neighborhood of Paris. The woman's elegant blue dress, yellow gloves, festooned hat, and brightly colored parasol all indicate her comfortable social standing. The grand buildings, prominent fountain, and finely dressed pedestrians and commuters behind her, including those sitting atop a horse-drawn omnibus, suggest the daily encounters that enlivened the modern city.