Sir Gerald Festus Kelly (1879-1972):
The Tour St. Jacques, Paris, circa 1901
Framed (ref: 70)
Titled on a label to the reverse
Oil on panel, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (16 x 14 cm.)
See all works by Sir Gerald Festus Kelly oil panel
Provenance: given by Kelly to his assistant, the artist John Napper
In 1901, Kelly moved from London to live in Paris where he took lessons
from the Canadian Impressionist artist James Wilson Morrice, who advised
him to paint out in the open, making small oil sketches as an exercise.
This resulted in a series of scenes of everyday life in Paris, many of
which were made near his studio in the Boulevard Montparnasse. This
panel shows the Tour St. Jacques, with building work visible beyond in
the rue de Rivoli, soon after the 1900 Exposition Universelle, which
resulted in a surge of reconstruction throughout the centre of Paris.
We are grateful to Michael Barker for his assistance in cataloguing this painting.