Lot 1: BERNARD VIRET

BERNARD VIRET FRENCH 19TH CENTURY LE KIOSQUIER signed B. Viret (lower right) oil on canvas 37 3/4 by 28 3/4 in. 96 by 72 cm

Though painted in the nineteenth century, Viret's Le Kiosquier is immediately recognizable to anyone who has purchased a newspaper from the tiny kiosks dotting Paris' streets. Unlike the Seine's bouquinistes who sell books, prints, and old maps while standing beside iconic green cabin-like boxes, the kiosquier works from inside his stand, surrounded by newspapers, magazines, and miscellaneous media for sale. As Viret portrays, each centimeter of the kiosk is used to its maximum advantage for merchandising – usually at the cost of comfort for the vendor, crowded at all sides by his wares. Viret's kiosquier can barely extend his arms while enjoying his pipe as the bold mastheads of France's newspapers (including Le Temps, Le Siècle, Le Matin, Gil Blas, Le Rappel, Le Petit Parisien, and Le Figaro, the only one still in publication today) call out to passersby. The compressed, vertical composition and shallow picture space creates an illusion in which the viewer becomes a boulevardier, stopping along their promenade to purchase a favored daily paper. While little is known of Viret's career, he, like Émile Zola and the Naturalist writers and painters of the late nineteenth century, appears fascinated with recording his impressions of everyday Parisian life. From the weathered walls of the kiosk to topical prints hanging from clothespins to the ruddy texture of the vendor's skin, each pictorial element was chosen to heighten the illusion of reality—a hallmark of the Naturalists' style.