Stanislas-Victor-Edmond Lépine, 'Nuns and Schoolgirls in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris', 1871-83

Stanislas Lépine frequently painted scenes of Paris but avoided the sights of the modern city that particularly appealed to the Impressionists. In this small oil painting on wood we see a seated nun and a schoolgirl holding a skipping rope for three girls as another nun and more girls approach to join them. The ruins of the Tuileries Palace can be seen in the background.

Lépine painted over a dozen views of the gardens which surrounded the Tuileries Palace on the right bank of the river Seine in the heart of the city. The Parisian residence of most French monarchs from Henry IV to Napoleon III, the Palace had been burned down during the Commune of 1871, the short-lived revolutionary government that ruled Paris in the immediate aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and Siege of Paris.

In this picture we can see the ruins of the Tuileries Palace after its destruction. As the ruins were completely demolished between December 1882 and September 1883, Lépine would have painted the picture between 1871 and 1883. He has limited his colours to tones of blue, yellow, green and grey, whose subtle harmonies enhance the sense of everyday life and activities restored after the upheavals of the war and the Commune.