Georgi Alexandrovich Lapchine
(Russian, 1885-1950)

"Vue de Notre-Dame de Paris et Le Petit Pont"

oil on linen
signed lower right.
Framed.
13-7/8" x 10-7/8", framed 20-3/4" x 17-1/2"

Notes: Georges Lapchine (born Georgii Aleksandrovich Lapshin) was a gifted landscape/still life painter, who perfected the lighting and palette of the Post Impressionist-style. His street/monument scenes are as prolific as his rural landscapes and floral still-lifes; all employ his characteristic rich texture rendered through impastos of color - ochre, ivory, sienna, phthalo and ultramarine blues loosely applied with broad brushwork and palette knife. Originally from Russia, Lapchine first studied in Moscow in the Art School of Stroganov and in France in F. Kormon's studio, before permanently moving to Paris in 1924. Lapchine exhibited annually from 1925 to 1940 in the prestigious Salon des Independents, and held numerous other exhibitions and engagements, including the Societe des Artistes Francais, the Great Exhibition of Russian Art and Turgenev's artistic community. Lapchine was equally involved in the performing arts; he was a tenor and sang Russian opera, and worked in the theaters as a stage designer, creating scenes for the Paris Music Hall, the Folies Bergere and Sesame in Monte Carlo.

The Notre Dame Cathedral, an architectural chef d'oeuvre of Paris and Christendom, was equally mastered by the virtuoso of Lapchine. He painted the Cathedral in a handful of small ~8" x 10" studies, each time capturing a different angle and light of the edifice on the Ile de la Cite. The painting offered here is not only the largest and most complete painting by Lapchine of the Notre Dame to be offered at auction (according to Artnet and Artprice), but it also depicts one of the most famous angles of the West facade from the Petit Pont.

Light surface: craquelure pattern visible; previously cleaned, relined, and taped edges: areas on bridge and sky fluoresce under UV light but appear to be hand of artist. Gilt frame with some age: surface marks, nicks, and abrasions.