Georges Stein

Georges Stein, born Séverin Louis Stein (Paris, 12 February 1864 - Geneva, 1917), was a French Impressionist artist. Stein was a painter and draughtsman, and is known primarily for light-infused views of Paris and London. He also painted scenes from Melun, Vichy, Bern, Geneva, and Monte Carlo.
Biography
Stein was born in Paris, the son of bookbinder Marc-Séverin and Barbe Kintziger. By 1906, he was living in Montigny-sur-Loing.
He was a member of the Société des artistes français, and exhibited at the Salon des artistes français from 1912 to 1914, during which time he lived in Melun.
He was a student of Jules Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger.
Style
Stein's works are marked by spontaneity, dynamism and movement, giving the viewer the feeling of participating in the scenes observed. Under the influence of Jean Béraud, he worked in particular on the treatment of light to translate the bustle of Parisian life. He populated his paintings with elegant women in a hurry as they went about their daily business.
In response to a commission in 1910 by Léon Roubot, director of the Élysée-Palace, Stein produced a set of four large canvases for the décor of a new casino in Vichy, which depicted carriage rides, visits to the brasseries, the casino and the racetrack.
Salons
Salon des indépendants :
1906, 22nd exhibition:
Parisienne (effet de nuit)
La rue Auber au crépuscule
Promenade des Anglais à Nice
Le Quai de la Tournelle
Brouillard sur la Seine
Coin de forêt (Fontainebleau)
La rue de Sèvres
Boulevard des Italiens, pastel
Salon des artistes français :
1912, 130th official exhibition:
Le Pont de Westminster à Londres
1913, 131st official exhibition:
La route de Turin à Nice, aquarelle
Crépuscule parisien, aquarelle rehaussée
1914, 132nd official exhibition:
Soleil d'hiver à Nice
Dans la forêt de Fontainebleau
Sur le pont des Saints-Pères - crépuscule, aquarelle rehaussée
Crépuscule d'hiver, aquarelle rehaussée
Exhibitions
Exhibition of the Société des Arts de Seine-et-Marne, 1914, 8th exhibition.
"Échappées bucoliques", Médiathèque Valery Larbaud, Vichy, 2009 :
L'arrivée des calèches et Fête des Fleurs devant la source des Célestins à Vichy, oil on canvas, 130 x 195 cm, private collection.
Works in public collections
Paris, musée Carnavalet :
Cavaliers et attelages, avenue du Bois, oil on canvas, 80 x 58 cm;
Grands magasins du Pont-Neuf, Paris, Jouets, Étrennes 1899, poster, 131 x 94 cm.
Melun, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire :
Le Marché aux fleurs à Paris;
La Place de l'Opéra le soir, pastel;
Three paintings relating to the Jeanne d'Arc bridge (a.k.a. pont aux Fruits):
Vue de la Seine depuis la promenade de Vaux, oil on canvas;
Le Pont aux Fruits le soir, oil on canvas (dedicated « À Monsieur Émile Gaulard, bien affectueusement. G. Stein » and signed « SEVER LUD GEORGES STEIN. MELUN »);
Le Pont de Melun, oil on canvas.
Conflict of sources
Sources conflict over Stein's dates of birth and death. The Benezit Dictionary of Artists gives the year of birth as "c. 1870". The auction house Christie's, among others, gives the dates 1855–1930, and the French National Library the dates 1870–1955.
There is some ambiguity over Stein's gender; some gallery websites describe him as a female painter.
References
References
Sources
Gérald Schürr, Les Petits Maîtres de la peinture (1820-1920), Paris, Éditions de l'Amateur.
Jean-Paul Crespelle, Les Maîtres de la Belle Époque, Paris, Éditions Hachette, 1966
Aleksa Čelebonović, Peinture kitsch ou réalisme bourgeois : L'art pompier dans le monde, Paris, Seghers, 1974.
External links
19th-century French painters
1864 births
1917 deaths