14 juillet, Montmartre by Yvonne Canu

Yvonne Canu
1921-2008 | French

14 juillet, Montmartre
(July 14, Montmartre)

Signed "Canu" (lower right)
Signed and titled "14 Juilleta [sic] Montmartre / y. Canu" (en verso)
Oil on canvas

A crowd celebrates Bastille Day in the Montmartre arrondissement of Paris in this brilliantly lit and vibrantly colored oil on canvas by the French Post-Impressionist Yvonne Canu. The 20th-century painter's pointillist creations are distinctly modern, rendered with painstakingly precise dots of pure color that brilliantly blend together to form a cohesive work of art. This oil exemplifies her distinctive style, which displays the influence of the Post-Impressionist icon Georges Seurat in both its technique and choice of subject — a modern leisure scene. Canu's use of minuscule points of pigment and bright colors results in this stunning scene full of vitality and light.

Born in Morocco in 1921, Yvonne Canu traveled to Paris to study at the reputable École des Arts Decoratifs. Following the First World War, she entered the circle of the French-Japanese painter Tsuguharu Foujita and the Impressionist Élisée Maclet, both of which profoundly influenced the development of her style. She experimented with not only the impressionist style, but also cubism early in her career. However, it would be the great Georges Seurat who had the most impact on her artistic aesthetic. Inspired by the artist's masterpiece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte, Canu developed the pointillist style of painting for which she is best remembered today.

Canvas: 21 1/2" high x 29" wide
Frame: 31 1/2" high x 39" wide

Provenance:
Private collection, West Vieux-Montreal, Quebec, Canada