Carole Pinto Fine Arts
Francois Joseph Luigi Loir
French Artist (1845-1916)
'Parisian Boulevards One Evening after the Rain'
Oil on Canvas
9.5 x 12 in.
$22,800
Museums:
Musee des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux;
Musee du Louvre, Paris;
Musee du Petit Palais, Paris;
Musee des Beaux Arts de Rouen, France; Art Institute of Chicago;
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco ;
Clark Institute, Williamston, U.S.A.; Tretiakoff Gallery, Moscow.
Born in Austria, Loir began his formal art education in 1853 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Parma, Italy. He moved to Paris in 1863, and made his debut at the prestigious Salon de Paris, receiving high acclaim for his work. He was soon commissioned to do mural and ceiling work for the wealthy French bourgeoisie.
After 1870, Loir concentrated exclusively on painting views of his beloved Paris. In these works, Loir caught and expressed tenderly and insightfully the many faces of Paris at all hours of the day and night. His exceptional powers of observation, coupled with his compositional prowess and dramatic palette of colors gained him a reputation for being one of the most sought after artists of the period. His paintings are intimate vignettes of daily life in the City of Light, lyrically depicted in luminous tonalities and exquisite detail. Loir was awarded successively the Bronze and Silver Medals at the Paris Salons, followed by the prestigious Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 in Paris. He was inducted into the Legion of Honor in 1898.