Les Affiches à Trouville

1906

Oil on canvas, 65 × 81 cm. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris

Holidaymakers in boaters and dark coats crowd a promenade in front of a long row of posters. He painted the scene twice; the other is known today only through an old photograph in black and white.

Probably the canvas exhibited at the 1906 Salon d'Automne under the title Les Planches (Trouville).
Look at the lower right: an empty red folding chair stands apart from the crowd.
Figures are set down in a few quick, dark strokes, with almost no modeling.
Printed posters and their lettering become part of the painting. The posters carry most of the strong color; the sky and street stay gray and pale.
The museum bought it in 1956.

By a tradition recorded by Dorival, author of a 1957 article on this painting, the man in the panama hat at center is the playwright Henri Bernstein.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-old-70