Robert F Boyle (1909-2010) France 1944-45 Oil on Canvas Board P1183

This must have been painted during Robert Boyle’s WWII stint in the Signal Corps. A sombre and insightful document of war-torn Europe. Hauntingly evocative and absolutely honest. The industrial suburb of a northern French city (Metz?) laid out under a winter sky. The walls display that eternal and ubiquitous French notice “Défense d’afficher” (Post No Bills). On his return to Hollywood, Boyle resumed his career as a production designer and renewed his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, creating mise-en-scenes that have remained classics of production design, most notably for North By Northwest and The Birds. But here we have a key to that success, an eye on reality, without which no fantasy can convince. The sky, the few human figures, the smoke from the factory chimneys, the ONE car, it is all so telling.

Board 15″ x 27″, frame 18.5″ x 30.5″.