Ricardo Florès (1878–1918) - Notre-Dame de Paris

Ricardo FLORÈS
(Alençon, 1878 – Rennes, 1918)

Notre-Dame. Gray Weather

Oil on canvas
Signed lower right
46 x 55 cm unframed
65 x 74 cm framed
1907

Exhibition:
- Fourth exhibition of the Société des Peintres du Paris Moderne in 1907, under number 98, titled Notre-Dame. Gray Weather

The son of a Peruvian father, Ricardo Georges Florez, known as “Ricardo Florès,” was born on October 20, 1878, in Alençon, in the Orne department. It was in this same city that he began working in 1894 as an assistant draftsman in the military engineering offices. Two years later, in 1896, Ricardo Florès was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

His early artistic works centered on drawing and caricature. His work was published in various satirical magazines of the time, the best known of which was Le Charivari. At the same time, he also illustrated various literary works for Maupassant, Richepin, and others. His first known paintings were those submitted starting in 1904 to the Salon d’Automne in Paris, where he became a member a few years later. Ricardo Florès continued to exhibit at the Salon until 1913.

Indeed, when World War I broke out, the artist enlisted in August 1914 at Les Invalides as a foreign volunteer. From then on, he used his talent for caricature to depict his new environment among the “poilus,” capturing them in their grim daily lives. Wounded in Belgium at Mount Kemmel in June 1918, he died on his fortieth birthday in a military hospital in Rennes from sepsis on October 20, 1918, after his wound became infected.

Our painting was exhibited under number 98 at the fourth exhibition of the Société des Peintres du Paris Moderne, held at the Grand Palais on the Champs-Élysées from February 5 to 25, 1907.