Paris Street by Robert Delaunay

This luminous and charming watercolor, titled “Paris Street”, plunges us back into the elegant atmosphere of Parisian parks painted by the artist Robert Delaunay. Through this animated view of urban modernity during the Belle Epoque, the painter captures the movement and joy of living of contemporary leisure. This early work bears witness to his early interest in solar light and scenes of daily life.

The pastoral scene unfolds in a park with sunny yellow lawns, bordered by green trees under a cloudy blue sky. On the left, a man dressed in black elegantly pedals a penny-farthing bicycle, followed by a small black dog running at his feet. In the center, an elegant couple strolls, the woman wearing a purple dress and sheltering under a bright red umbrella. On the right, several strollers in suits and top hats sit peacefully in the grass, while the white silhouette of the Arc de Triomphe is delicately outlined in the background.

The artist shows here an immense technical delicacy in the handling of watercolor and colored washes. His ability to use the transparency of water to create light shadows and reflections of golden light on the lawns demonstrates an accomplished craftsmanship, full of poetry and visual sensitivity.