Untitled (París) [Sin título (París)], 1934.
Esteban Vicente, motivated by the avant-garde atmosphere of the French capital, travelled to Paris for the first time in 1928. During his stay there he coincided with the Spanish artists, members of the so-called “fruit painting” or Paris School: Pedro Flores, Ramón Gaya, Bores, Viñes, among others. In 1929, he exhibited for the first and only time in the Salon des Superindépendants. He then decided to travel to London and after Madrid and Barcelona, returning to Paris in 1932 with a scholarship from the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios [Council for the Extension of Studies and Scientific Research], which would be renewed several times. During this new period in Paris he painted and sketched landscapes of the city and its surroundings directly from nature. From this period is this drawing representing the Louvre Museum viewed from the Tuileries Gardens with the Arch of Carrousel in the background, with people strolling and chatting among the buildings and trees. Here the artist alternates fine strokes for the buildings with thicker ones for the vegetation and the people.
It is possible that this drawing was shown in the Gallery d’Art Catalonia exhibition opened in February 1934, the time when Vicente returned to Barcelona, and which critics referred to as follows: “The highly advertised exhibition of the work by the Madrid artist Esteban Vicente has now opened in this gallery. Distinguished ladies, the artists Soledad Martínez, Camps, Ribera, J. Sunyer, Creixams, Fenosa, Flores, Canadell, Ventosa, Llauradó, Granyer and art critics were all present at the well-attended and lively opening ceremony. The exhibition features 38 landscape drawings of Paris and the Marne region”. In addition, the reviews described the drawings thus: “Loose, with a pleasant and curious vibrancy, these drawings reveal an obvious perceptiveness and an outstanding skilfulness with the lines”.