Vintage Art Appreciation: Paris - The Flower Market on the Île de la Cité by Louis Marie de Schryver

The Flower Market on the Île de la Cité
by Louis Marie de Schryver (1862–1942)

About the artist: Louis Marie de Schryver was born in Paris on October 12, 1862. The son of a well-respected journalist, he was raised in the privileged upper class of French society.As a member of the upper class himself, de Schryver was no doubt innately familiar with the leisure activities of the fashionable women of Paris that would become his subject matter. Among the many changes to daily life in the waning years of the 19th century was the increasing visibility of women outside the home.

About the painting: Both the chic women strolling the boulevards to show off their modish new dresses and hats and the young women selling flowers and staffing the cafés and boutiques in the fashionable areas of town were taking advantage of new freedoms that would not have been available to them even a generation before.

The profusion of different flowers on offer is complimented by the artist’s skillful rendering of the backlit pink parasol of the woman in the background and the play of light on the layered light-yellow ribbons on the hat of the woman in the foreground, as these elements echo the shape and color palette of the flowers themselves. The horse-drawn carriage passing in the background gives the painting a charmingly anecdotal, observed quality which is a hallmark of the artist’s best work.

Source of image and description: Christie's

Free Printable Fashion History Illustration for Altered Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: A Quiet Evening, 1892

A quiet secluded life in the country,
with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good,
and who are not accustomed to have it done to them;
then work which one hopes may be of some use;
then rest, nature, books, music,
love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
Leo Tolstoy

A vintage fashion history illustration from 1892 showing two Victorian ladies enjoying a quiet evening of reflection and conversation at home. Scanned from my personal collection of antique La Mode Illustrée magazines.

Download and use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons License
For personal use only. Not for resale. All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please cite RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Printable Pattern for Needlecrafts, Scrapbooking or Wall Art: French Floral Design for Embroidery 2 (1904)

A French embroidery pattern from 1904 showing a Louis XV - XVI inspired design with leaves and ribbons for the bottom part of a screen. The pattern keys are outlined below the design. From my personal collection of antique La Mode Illustrée magazines.

Download and use for a needlework project but you can also incorporate this pattern into mixed media artwork, to embellish a scrapbook page or simply print and frame for wall art. You can find the free high-res 8" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Creative Commons License
For personal use only. Not for resale. All digitized work by The Real Victorian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Please cite RealVictorian.com as your source when sharing or publishing.