The Flower Seller
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 40.50 x 62.75 inches sight size, 51 x 73 inches framed
Signed Lr.
Providence: Exhibited in Paris, Palais des Champs-Elysées, Salon of the Society of French Artists, 1887, no. 2164 (illustrated p. 296 in the catalog)
Genre painter, born in Paris October 12, 1862, died in the same city on 6 December 1942. Of Belgian descent, his early vocation of becoming an artist was not favored by his father who was a journalist in Paris. Louis studied with Gabriel-Joseph-Marie-Augustin Ferrier (1847-1914), and débuted, at the age of thirteen, in the Salon of 1876, with two canvases of flowers. He was a member of the Society of the Salon since 1896, it was there that he obtained an honorable mention in 1886, another in 1889 at Universal Exposition, and still another award in 1891 and 1896, he received a monetary award at the Universal Exposition of 1900. He showed also at the Salon of the Independents after 1925. His many accomplishments included an honorable mention to a Universal exposition of Sydney, in 1879 and were named an honorary member of the Society of Arts of Canada (Montréal) in 1893.
At a very young age, he found his style of painting that would assure him a long period of success, scenes of the Paris streets around the year 1900, were mixed with the urban landscapes of the city with beautiful women in dresses of the era and flower sellers of the street. In another kind of genre, Louis Marie equally devoted his painting skill to the beginning of what would become the epic of automobile races of the period. His enormous fascination with the speed of the first racing cars, brought him together with Zwillet and Carolus-Duran (1838-1917, Paris), together they created the fine arts section of the automobile club of Paris. Around 1910 Louis comes back to the Paris scenes; in 1919 he went on a mission of cultural observer in Rhénanie after the war; it is there that he paints landscapes, still lifes and Patriotic canvases (The Flag, museum of la Army, Paris), that he sends to the Salon. He would abandon painting during the last years of his long life.
Museums:
Cambrai: “The Merchant of the Four Seasons”, 1895
Paris (Art Modern): “The Arrival of the Conqueror”.
Pontoise: “Still life”, 1879.
Tourcoing: “ Last flowers”, 1886.
