In his repeated subjects, 19th century French painter Marcel Rieder became fascinated with low levels of light, both in scenes of dusk and sunset, and in intimate outdoor and interior scenes lit by lamps.
Like the “painters of Paris”, Luigi Loir, Eugéne Galien Laloue, Edward Léon Cortès and Antoine Blanchard — who found harmony in the warm and cool relationship of shop windows against blue-gray backgrounds — Reider found a similar appealing harmony in the yellow-orange glow of lamps against the cool blues and blue-grays of evening skies and the muted tones of interior walls.
Reider studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and with the classical Academic painter Alexandre Cabanel. His initial subjects were more in keeping with the literary influenced subject matter of the Symbolist painters, but he eventually moved to the inviting, softly lit subjects that would become his signature approach.
Online resources for Rieder’s work are limited, but there are enough images for you to get a feeling for his inviting pools of light and warmth.
