Saint Gervais

American Impressionist Alson Skinner Clark composed an evocative cityscape of Paris, detailing life around the Pont Louis Philippe. He rented a studio in Paris in 1909, allowing him time to absorb the charm of the city and study first-hand the buildings and monuments.  The sunlight and perceptible atmosphere are striking. An immediacy to the scene is unmistakable. Robust green trees front typical Parisian apartments, and the mansard roofs are unmistakably French. Below the bridge, floating barges rest by the banks of the River Seine while workers load goods onto horses. The namesake of the painting, the Church of Saint-Gervais-Protais, is only partially visible: the bell tower rises in the center of the sky, and below stretches the brown roof of the church. St. Gervais was built between 1492-1620 and is intact today. At one time, it sheltered a famous dynasty of French musicians. Saint-Gervais-Protais was also the former seat of a powerful brotherhood of wine merchants.

The family of Clark lived in Paris until the outbreak of the First World War. His next adventure was in Panama, where he documented the final construction stages of the Panama Canal. The series was thereafter exhibited in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.