View of a French Belle Époque city with bridge and monument, 1923, cm 68 × 58 cm

View of a French Belle Époque city with bridge and monument, 1923, 68 × 58 cm with frame

Signed and dated 1923, this painting depicts a French city in the early 20th century, suspended between 19th-century heritage and the atmospheres of the Belle Époque and Art Nouveau. The urban scene opens onto a wide ochre-toned square, crossed by a bridge leading to a corner building with the sign “Musique”, likely a music shop. At the centre stands a monument with a draped male figure beside a sphere; at its base appears the solitary figure of an elderly woman, introducing a subtle note of melancholy into the silence of the square.

On the left side a liberty-style wrought-iron canopy recalls the early 20th-century taste for elegant urban structures, while around the square rise buildings with slate mansard roofs, dormer windows and numerous chimneys. The façades, alternating ochre with large red-brick surfaces, are arranged like theatrical backdrops. What stands out is the architectural wisdom with which the artist builds the urban space: clear perspectives, calibrated volumes and precisely drawn details give the painting the solidity of a project conceived with the eye of an architect. In the distance, a hilly relief connects the city to the surrounding landscape.

Oil on canvas, signed lower right “B. Vandenmüller” and dated 1923.
Dimensions: 55 × 46 cm without frame; 68 × 58 cm with frame.

Period giltwood frame.
Condition: good.

Little is known about B. Vandenmüller, a painter active in the early decades of the 20th century. This work nonetheless remains a rare testimony of French urban painting between the wars, where monumentality, Belle Époque atmosphere and architectural rigor intertwine with an intimate, melancholic tone.