Lights of the Mediterranean

Lights of the Mediterranean 

With his wife’s failing health and a desire to explore a popular tourist destination, Loppé and his family spent the winter of 1857 in Nice. They returned there the following year and discovered the village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, where they rented an apartment. The painter produced several canvases in the village. Among them, La Place de l’église de Villefranche-sur-Mer (The village square of Villefranche-sur-Mer) required several sittings due to a violent wind, a testament to the painter’s tenacity. 

The Lido à Venise (Lido in Venice), which he executed in 1876 while travelling in Italy with his daughter, marked a departure from his usual approach to landscapes. Far from the close-up views of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the panorama he offered of the lagoon echoed the focal points of his attention: the expression of the morning light reflected in the sky and on the water; the appearance of the clouds, where shimmering dawn colours mingled with smoke rising from the city.