This Parisian street scene depicts the Rue à Montmartre at a time when it was slightly less bustling than it is today. Also at this time, Galien-Laloue could not predict that this area would become home to a very bohemian element of artists in a few short years. Here we sense activity at days end and an acute capturing of a winter’s night and the both the slight hush of sound, the glow of lights coming on and the delicacy of the mauve light from sunset coloring day’s end. It has an innate elegance that comes from the black mantle of long coats and the line of dark vehicles. The viewer feels like they have stepped back into the Belle Epoque era. Rue à Montmartre depicts great symmetry, organized harmoniously between the sky and the snow, while portraying the depth of the scene with the architectural details in the distance. As a one of the greatest draftsmen of his time, Galien-Laloue loved to work on paper but our work is an oil on canvas which is quite rare. This would signal that the artist did this more for himself than as a commercial work for quick sale.
Galien-Laloue was painting in a bustling city, a city that was the artistic and cultural center of the world, a city in which ladies of high fashion paraded about streets that were for the first time being freshly populated by omnibuses and cabs. The entertainment and nightlife of Paris was unequalled by any other city in the world and Galien-Laloue in Rue à Montmartre has captured that moment of the day where nighttime activities are imminent. The sky mirrors this in its pink glow, the streets are dotted with light, and the people are bustling about in the snow, itself reflecting a plethora of colors.
Galien-Laloue is known and widely collected as a School of Paris or Belle Epoque painter. Most people are familiar with his Parisian Street scenes that are similar to those by Loir and Cortes. They are often works on paper done with watercolor and gouache, though he is known to have worked in a multitude of media including also pen, pencil and ink, and oil. These street scenes have become highly collected and desired as they were even during his lifetime. Born in Paris in 1854, Galien-Laloue studied under Charles Laloue. He made his debut at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1877 and continued throughout his years to show his works there with great success. In recent years, his work has enjoyed an international resurgence in popularity.
Yet Galien-Laloue had another side. As he was under contract to particular galleries and not allowed to show with others, he often painted under aliases. This allowed him to paint something other than the commercially salable street scenes and to have artistic freedom. An alias gave him the ability to sell his more serious works and to make sales outside his dealer's gallery. Thus, Galien-Laloue signed many oils with names such as Galiani and Lieven.