Guy Charon (1927-2021), Paris, The Seine, The Austerlitz Bridge, Circa 1960

Charon, Guy
Ecueillé, Indre, February 4, 1927 – January 29, 2021

Paris, the Seine, the Austerlitz Bridge, circa 1960
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right “Charon”
H. 60 cm. / L. 73 cm.

Label on the back of the stretcher from Galerie Stiébel, Paris (30, rue de Seine, 6^th. arrondissement). Work cleaned and varnished by a professional restorer.

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Charon, Guy
Ecueillé, Indre, February 4, 1927 – January 29, 2021

French painter and lithographer.

In 1951, Guy Charon moved to Paris. From 1954 onwards, he exhibited regularly at Parisian art fairs, notably the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon d'Automne, and at the Galerie Charpentier as part of group exhibitions dedicated to the painters of the Ecole de Paris.

Since 1956, his paintings and lithographs were featured in numerous solo exhibitions in France, the United States, Venezuela, Switzerland, Monaco, Norway, Sweden and Japan.

Today, his works can be found in numerous private and public collections around the world, including:

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale (various prints)

Paris, Petit Palais (8th arrondissement), Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville (print)

Paris, Palais de Tokyo (16th arrondissement), Musée d’Art Moderne (print)

Paris, Fondation Mitterrand

Saint Cyprien, Museum

Switzerland, Petit Palais, Musée d’Art Moderne, Oscar Ghez collection (1905-1998)

USA, Minneapolis, Institute of Art (watercolour)

The artist was the subject of French documentary films in 1960, 1983 and 1985.

Now renowned for his brightly coloured landscape paintings and lithographs reminiscent of Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), Charon’s work is characterised by Fauvist-inspired colours softened by rounded shapes and lines. He is sometimes described as the “painter of happiness”.

The work we present here is from his early period, with a figurative aesthetic in the tradition of the Nouvelle Ecole de Paris (New School of Paris), also known as Jeune peinture de l’Ecole de Paris (Young painting from the School of Paris).