Meinert Volkers: "L'escale Rue Drevet"

Meinert Volkers 

(1927-2000)

Dutch painter and drawer.

Educated at the Vrije Academie ("Free Academy") in the Haque Netherlands, this artist today is mainly remembered as a painter of landscapes, abstracts, still-life and figures. He lived and worked in Paris for some time and there aren't many examples of his art around.

A recent local market find, is this washed drawing in pen and black ink obviously of a location in Paris in the 1950's. It is actually Rue Drevet (crossing Rue des Trois Frères) and the steps (l'escale) towards the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.

I tried finding some more details about this spot in Paris and came up with the following results. Some old postcards showing the place in glorious and prosperous days. Remember this is the heart of the old Paris were at the time  many famous artists, like Vincent and Pablo, worked and lived.

Today however the situation is deplorable, the proud building on the left with the striped sunshades owned by a J. Jacquemard around 1900 after a recent fire is in ruins. Graffity helping to create an atmosphere of desolation, decay and crisis. Before the fire, recently this pictoresque place was subject to some very nice contemporary artists:

Paintings by colorfull artists like Jacques Ruiz (left), and Bruno Emil Laurent (1928-) (right), and an etching (below) by artist Albert Decaris (1901-1988) who is btw reviewed extensively here* at Neil's "Adventures in the Printtrade".

In honour to the artist I just stumbled upon, here's a choice (below) of some of the very few other works I've found.

Visit the colorfull Websites and the Montmartre of painters Bruno Emil Laurent and Jacques Ruiz here:

B.E. Laurent: http://bel.over-blog.com/article-13510970.html

J. Ruiz: http://ruizjacques.rmc.fr/r16297/Tableaux-de-PARIS/