Pierre Klemczynski (1910–1991) Annexe de l’Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris

Pierre Klemczynski (1910–1991)

Annexe de l’Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris

Oil on canvas, signed left

Canvas size: 65 × 53.5 cm

Size with frame: 80 × 69 cm

Gilt wooden frame.

This urban landscape depicts one of the annex buildings of the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, part of the large hospital complex founded by Henry IV in the early 17th century. Designed by Claude Vellefaux as a counterpart to the Hôtel-Dieu, the complex originally included several peripheral structures intended for auxiliary services and isolation. The building shown here belongs to these side constructions: plain, robust, without decorative detail, conceived for functional use.

Klemczynski isolates this historic structure behind a tall wall that cuts across the composition, transforming a 17th-century building into a quiet, self-contained presence. The scene is pared down to three elements — the wall, the building and the sky — reflecting the painter’s affinity with the sensibility of the École de la Bastille, where clarity and restraint guide the composition. The atmosphere subtly recalls certain urban views by Utrillo, where architecture becomes an inner, contemplative space.

Condition: very good, with a tiny loss of paint in the sky.

On the reverse are several labels: a handwritten label with the title Annexe Hôpital Saint-Louis – Paris; a label with the artist’s name and address; period annotations; and a Salon des Indépendants label confirming the work’s presentation at this important Parisian Salon.

Pierre Klemczynski trained at the École Ernest Meissonnier and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In the 1930s he worked as a theatre painter at the Comédie-Française, in an environment close to Raoul Dufy. After the war, his collaboration with Georges Giraudon — founder of the École de la Bastille — reinforced his inclination toward measured, carefully balanced compositions built from a few selected elements.

He exhibited widely in major Paris Salons and received distinctions such as the Prix d’Expression (1949), the Prix de la Critique (1972) and the Prix Léonard de Vinci (1973). In 1961 one of his paintings, L’église de Vescles, was awarded as an official prize to filmmaker François Truffaut. His works are now held in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Lons-le-Saunier, which dedicated a retrospective to him in 2016.

The present painting is published in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Bernard Chemorin.