Rêve Nostalgique De La France

Rêve nostalgique de la France — A Nostalgic Dream of France

This painting grew out of my memories of Paris and a series of paintings I created during August and September of 1982, while living in France. At that time, I discovered a beautiful garden near Espace Pierre Cardin, not far from the Place de la Concorde. Among the trees and flowerbeds stood an elegant building with tall arched windows, an ornate façade, and a distinctive domed pavilion. Captivated by its architecture and surroundings, I painted the scene several times, both in daylight and at night.

Years later, the memory of that building became the inspiration for Rêve nostalgique de la France. Rather than recreate the original setting exactly, I incorporated its architecture into an imagined landscape, placing it beside a tranquil body of water beneath a warm, luminous evening sky. The building's reflection, the surrounding trees, and the brilliant red flowers along the shoreline create an atmosphere that exists somewhere between reality and recollection.

My years in France left me with an enduring affection for its architecture, gardens, and landscapes. Certain places remain especially vivid in my memory, not simply because of their appearance, but because of the experiences and emotions associated with them. Over time, those impressions can take on a life of their own, finding their way into my paintings in unexpected ways.

In Rêve nostalgique de la France, I wanted to express that feeling of returning to a cherished place through memory and imagination. The building itself was real, and I had painted it from life many years earlier, but the landscape surrounding it belongs to a more personal vision of France—a nostalgic dream in which the past and the imagination become inseparable.