ArtistMasson, Marcel (Antoine Blanchard)

Artist Years1910-1988

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleMontmartre Sous la Neige

Year1958

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 15 X 18 inches

Accession NumberRC1493

NotesMarcel Masson was born in a small village near the banks of the Loire. He painted his immensely popular Parisian street scenes using the pseudonym Antoine Blanchard and rarely, using his real name as in this painting.

Masson received his initial artistic training at the Beaux-Arts in Rennes, Brittany. He then moved to Paris in 1932 where he joined the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Like Édouard Cortès (1882–1969) and Eugène Galien-Laloue (1854–1941), Masson as Antoine Blanchard essentially painted Paris and the Parisians in bygone days, often from vintage postcards.

The artist began painting his Paris street scenes in the late 1950s, and like Cortès, often painted the same Paris landmark many times, in different weather conditions or various seasons. The most recurrent topics were views of the capital city in cloudy or rainy days, showing streets busy with pedestrians in a rush to go home, and bright storefronts reflecting on wet streets. Many of the French Quarter art galleries of New Orleans handle Antoine Blanchard paintings and prints since this American City has a strong French history. His art is popular in international art auctions and there are many copies. Marcel Masson died On August 10, 1988, aged 77.
(source: wikipedia.org)