Esquisse pour la mairie de Thiais : village avec une église

Esquisse pour la mairie de Thiais: village avec une église is a companion study to the Vanves commission — Paul Schmitt working out another view of a commune south of Paris for a similar municipal decoration scheme. Thiais, like Vanves, required imagery that affirmed local identity and the continuity between the village's historic built environment and its civic life. These small studies preserve an interesting record of how such public art was planned and executed in provincial France during the early Third Republic.

Like the other Schmitt sketches, this is broadly and freely painted — a working document rather than finished presentation piece. The handling is loose and energetic, capturing the essential arrangement of buildings, sky, and landscape in quick summary strokes.