Louis Vivin

Vivin was self-taught and a representative of naïve painting. He showed great enthusiasm for painting as a child, but his career took him in a completely different direction: he worked as a postal clerk until 1922, pursuing his art only in his spare time.[2] Eventually, he was discovered by the German art critic Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947), an association which helped him start exhibitions and build a reputation as a serious artist. When he worked in the postal service, his job was an inspector. Once he retired in the year of 1923, Louis Vivin finally took up the full-time part of being an artist.[3] His birthplace was in the city of Hadol, France. He moved to Paris, France in the year of 1889 where he lived with his wife in the district of Montparnasse.[4][5]

The subjects of Vivin's paintings were still life, hunting subjects, and the city of Paris.[6] Vivin was a contemporary of Henri Rousseau, Camille Bombois, André Bauchant, and Séraphine Louis, known collectively as the "Sacred Heart Painters" and as masters of French naïve painting.[7] Vivin's works are known to have a sad and dismal theme to them. He was also known for painting from his memory. Louis Vivin was influenced by the work and details of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier’s paintings. His works depicted genre scenes, flower pieces, hunting scenes and views of Paris, "notable for their charmingly wobbly perspective effects". [8]

Louis Vivin’s first one-man exhibition was placed at the Galerie des Quatre Chemins, and it was organized by Wilhelm Uhde in 1927.[3] His later work was considered to become less dependent of the melancholy mood, and it focused more on blocks of color and form.[4][5]

Southampton City Art Gallery[9]

• Venice: Canal Scene with a Church
• La main chaude
• Les Invalides
• Venice: Canal Scene with a Bridge

Auction Christie's[10]

• La place des Halles et l'eglise Saint-eustache, Paris, 1935
• Sacre coeur
• Vue de sacre coeur

Private collections[11]

• Casino de Biarritz
• The Flower Market, 1914
• Gare Montparnasse, Paris
• Luncheon on the Grass, 1925
• Paris, Eglise de la Trinité, 1925
• Paris, Montmartre: Cirque Medrano, 1925