A Medieval Cityscape Oil Painting by Jules Noel, Circa 1865

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The dark colors of this oil painting accurately depict an overcast autumn day in a Medieval European town, as interpreted … Read more The dark colors of this oil painting accurately depict an overcast autumn day in a Medieval European town, as interpreted by the artist, Jules Noël. Dating to circa 1865, the canvas, which is signed in the lower left corner, has been affixed to a board, thereby helping to ensure the painting’s preservation.

In the center of the scene is a towering cathedral, with multiple spires rising high above a row of multistory houses with bright awnings above the ground floors. Numerous citizens can be seen traversing the open commons area, with most of them clad in the traditional style of dress for 19th-century Brittany, which is where Noël was rumored to have been born and raised. Noël does an exquisite job of transporting the viewer back to older times when the sprawling cityscape was just starting to take root.

Jules Noël was a French artist whose specialty was landscapes and maritime paintings. There are discrepancies in Noël’s birthplace and year, but the consensus is that he was born as Louis Assez Noël, sometime in the early 1800s. Interestingly, Noël was the sixth child, and his middle name Assez, is French for “enough”, indicating that his parents had no intention of having any more children. Another fascinating note about Noël is the backwards “N” in his signature, which not only functions as a unique stamp to his paintings, but also serves as a tribute to his late mother, who signed her name in the same manner. See less