Henri Dupont-crespin (1882-1953) The Roofs Of Paris

Henri Ernest Clément DUPONT-CRESPIN
(Notre Dame de Bondeville 1882 – Paris 1953)
View of the rooftops of Paris
Oil on canvas
H. 65 cm; L. 92 cm
Signed and dated lower right “3-1948”

Exhibition: 60th exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants from April 22 to May 15, 1949 at the Museum of Fine Arts of the city of Paris under number 893

Henri Dupont was born in Normandy near Rouen, and to stand out from his very, even too classic, name, he adopted that of his mother as a complement, which would become his unique artistic name. He was a drawing teacher at the Épinal high school and also worked at the town museum, lending his eye to the identification of several old paintings. From 1928 and until the day before his death, Dupont-Crespin exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. The vast majority of his works are landscapes, but there are also portraits of his colleagues, friends and relatives. In 1940 he published a collection of engravings representing views of the town of Epinal, destroyed by bombing. These urban landscapes, unfortunately dislocated by their subject, are wonderful compositions which allow us to follow Ariadne's thread in the direction of our formidable composition. Almost panoramic, our canvas represents the roofs of Paris, on a cool foggy morning in March 1948. The pinkish or even orange light of the tiled roofs in the foreground comes between the purple shadows, pushed by the sun. Most certainly created in the 2nd arrondissement, this urban view is perfectly situable thanks to the position of the Pantheon and Notre-Dame, whose silhouettes stand out from the skyline. Canvases presenting the roofs of Paris are rare, even more so with poetic atmospheres where any lover of the city will be able to find a memory.