Henri Gaston Darien

Bought by the great-grand-father of the current owner.

Henri Gaston Darien (1864–1926), whose real name was Henry Gaston Adrien, trained with Jules Lefebvre and Antoine Guillemet and was interested in the depiction of landscapes, interiors and Paris life. He started exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1886, where he gave proof of his attachment to realism and Impressionism. His views of the urban environment and fashionable society feature gardens, markets, quaysides and interiors, painting a picture of modern city life in the Belle Epoque, in Normandy and Paris.

Darien was particularly interested in the lively atmosphere of the capital, seeking to capture its light and snapshots of bourgeois life as his subjects shopped, strolled and chatted in iconic Paris locations. He reflected the diversity of Paris’s inhabitants and their daily activities. This is particularly evident in his depictions of quaysides, such as the Les Quais du Louvre (Sotheby’s London, 15 November 2006, lot 350), Les Quais à Paris (Oger-Blanchet, Paris, 21 December 2015, lot 79), and the present painting.

Here the artist immerses the viewer in a scene on the banks of the Seine, with a barge and its cargo passing by, the clouds clearing shortly after a shower. The location is by the Pont de Solférino and the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur. In the background, on the left, the Palais du Musée du Louvre and the outline of the Île de la Cité can be seen in the distance. On the right are the remains of the Palais d’Orsay, which burnt down during the Commune in 1871. It would only be rebuilt as a railway station in 1898, opening just before the Exposition Universelle in 1900.

The figures who bring the painting to life stroll along the road where horse-drawn carriages go back and forth, while a man is sweeping the rainwater away. A middle-class man in a top hat is reading the advertisements on a Morris column, while in the foreground a woman is probably accompanied by a servant, who carries a baby in her arms wrapped in cloths. Darien thus reflects the busy life of the capital in a light-filled, urbane atmosphere.