Viven, Louis

(1861-1936)

   painter

   of humble origin, Louis Viven was born in Hadol, Vosges, and came to Paris in 1880. self-taught, he exhibited at the Foire aux croûtes in Montmartre in 1922, but remained a postal employee until he retired. His style is naive, with meticulous attention to detail, and he is academic in his use of luminous colors applied in a flat manner. But he often dabbled in an unreal style, especially in his depiction of Parisian buildings (Le Sacre-Cœur, 1930; Notre-Dame, 1935). For his landscapes, which are deprived of perspective, he composed a succession of simplified planes, of which the critic Wilhelm Uhde said that they "seemed to be facades of another landscape." Viven's scenes of wildlife (Le Cerf et les loups, 1925) express a feeling of anguish and solitude. Recognition of Viven's work came late, his first show having been in 1927.