The Fairgrounds at Porte de Clignancourt, Paris (1895)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Fairgrounds at Porte de Clignancourt, Paris

Lady in a Garden (1887)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Lady in a Garden

Paris Market (1885)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Paris Market

The energy surrounding the exchange of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and flowers at the various place des marchés in the bustling city of Paris enamored Victor Gilbert and prompted the works for which he is most celebrated. The enormous meat and produce market in north-central Paris, Les Halles, was a frequent subject for Gilbert, and it also served as the backdrop for Emile Zola’s Le ventre de Paris (1873).

In the present work, a soft afternoon light beaming through skylights brightens a corner of this small indoor market, illuminating the various wares. On full display are Gilbert’s skills as a master of still life.  With a meticulous attention to detail, he expertly renders every detail from a glass pitcher, to straw baskets, to the poultry and game in the stalls, and even to the customer’s hat being finely fashioned with blooms from the flower stand.

Gilbert likely included this work at the 1885 Paris Salon, as a contemporary journal describes his market scene in which the customers have all left and the merchants are left to take a break. The butchers have turned over their stall in order to make a game table and play the card game piquet. A little further, a spirited young woman and her fellow market tenants play a game of palets, a drinking cap game, with a wager likely made on the poultry pieces, game, leg of lamb and vegetables that Gilbert has been so careful to paint. [Sotheby's]

Market Day (1882)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Market Day

The Arrival of the Fishing Boats (1882)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Arrival of the Fishing Boats

During his lifetime, Victor Gilbert established himself as the premier painter of the contemporary Parisian marketplace. He achieved considerable success at the 1880 Salon when he was awarded a second-class medal for his painting A Corner of the Fish Market. Gilbert’s interest in the activities of the Paris fish markets in Les Halles likely prompted him to investigate the market’s precursor, the harbor. The fish harbor and market became Gilbert’s most prized settings and The Arrival of the Fishing Boats is a detailed example of his ability to capture the intricacies of the fishing trade.

After the boats have come to shore, fishermen unload the catch but it is hard-working women who distribute and sort the various types of fish, selecting the best for their market baskets. Always striking in Gilbert’s fishing scenes, whether at the market or along the shore, is his exactitude in capturing the sheen and opacity of the bodies and scales of sea life.  [Gandalf’s Gallery]

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert (1880)

 Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: A Corner of the Fish Market

  

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Flower Market

Le Carreau des Halles (1880)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Le Carreau des Halles

The central markets of Paris have a long history that begins in the twelfth century, with the creation by Louis VII in 1137 a street market in the locality of Champeaux, on former wetlands outside the walls. The construction of wooden halls (“Les Halles”) under Philippe Auguste and Louis IX and development of the city beyond the marshes girdling it contributed to the main center of commerce and trade in the capital and surrounding areas. A true masterpiece of lightness and transparency, Les Halles, built by Baltard, were soon seen as the symbol of the new metallic architecture in the minds of his contemporaries and became a source of inspiration for writers and artists. One of the first to celebrate the modern Les Halles, even before their completion, was Émile Zola, who devoted his famous novel Le Ventre de Paris to it. Fascinated by the dynamism and energy that overflowed the place, he painted an exciting picture of the daily life in the pavilions, in which he describes in considerable detail the riot of smells, colors and various noises. Following Zola, of whom he was a fervent admirer, the realist painter Victor Gabriel Gilbert also devoted several paintings to this theme in the 1880s, trying to capture the picturesque and colorful atmosphere. One of them is an open air market scene in the main square, the tile, on the side of the Saint-Eustache Church, where gardeners and vegetable growers possessed fixed locations. Shoppers flock around the stalls of various fruits and vegetables guarded by a buxom peasant, her head covered with a scarf. In the background, heavy traffic animates the streets nearby, drowned in a flood of horse carriages and strollers. [L’Histoire par l’Image (via Google Translate)]

Selling Flowers, Paris (1879)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Selling Flowers, Paris

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert (1978)

 Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Market Day

    

 Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Flower Seller

  

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Vegetable Market, Paris

The Maubeuge Market (1877)

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: The Maubeuge Market