The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Quais de Seine en nocturne

c. 1890

Armand Point

(French, 1861–1932)
pastel on gray wove paper
Sheet: 38 x 55 x 2.5 cm (14 15/16 x 21 5/8 x 1 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2022.95
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The walkways along the Seine River that this drawing depicts were a recent addition, constructed as part of a major redesign of Paris spearheaded by Baron Haussmann, a French official, during the mid-1800s.

Description

Algerian-born artist Armand Point became involved in the Symbolist movement—which combined formal experimentation and imaginative subjects—while working in Paris during the 1890s. This drawing is one of many in which he represented his longtime companion and model, Hélène Linder. Here, she appears silhouetted against the brilliant reflection of setting sun on the city’s Seine River with swirling marks and bold tones that suggest the mood of the city as day transformed to night.
  • Using nonrepresentational colors, Point demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of color theory through the lens of his symbolist sensibility. The dark figure of a distinctly dressed woman walks up a stairway next to a vivid yellow river composed of a medley of juxtaposed colors. The river is identifiable as the Siene by the silhouetted roofline of the Assemblée Nationale beyond the trees on the opposite side. The night sky also glows cool yellow to yellow orange while the rest of the view is rendered in a more neutral palette that includes blue and purple hues complimentary to yellow and orange and chromatic gray tones made by blending the primary and secondary hues. Quays of the Seine at Night was executed in dry pastel on a medium thick gray paper. Thick and at times solid layers of pastel coat the surface. Close inspection reveals a powdery fresh surface with dense applications where the fine airy medium was compacted by forceful strokes. Bare paper, vital to the overall color scheme, is thoughtfully incorporated throughout the composition. As was customary for the medium and technique, the paper is mounted to canvas and wrapped on a strainer (or a stretcher). A laid paper type was determined based on the fine vertical laid line texture that is discernible when light rakes across the pastel’s surface at an oblique angle.
  • c. 1890-1914
    Hélène Berthelot (née Linder), Paris, France
    1914–55
    Hélène and Philippe Berthelot, Paris, by descent
    1955-2022
    Langlois-Berthelot family, Paris, 1955–2022
    ?-2022
    (Galerie de Bayser, Paris, France), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 12, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Quais de Seine en nocturne|url=false|author=Armand Point|year=c. 1890|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.95