Description
Pierre Paris – 2018. Acrylic on canvas. Original painting size: 36″ x 22″ (91.4 cm x 55.9 cm)
Pierre Paris was a new immigrant from the Basque region of France when he opened his first small shop on Main Street at 7th. He called it, The World Shoe Hospital. Business was good and he then bought and moved into the the building at 51 West Hastings in 1911. It had a bar in the basement, warehouses on the main floors and the Strathcona Hotel above.
Pierre’s company grew, making shoes and especially, boots for the logging industry that was booming in Vancouver at the time. Their success and reputation continued for 60 years.
In addition to running his growing enterprise, Pierre studied podiatry and his two sons, George and Roger, followed his example by attending podiatry school in Chicago. George and Roger returned to Vancouver to join their father’s podiatry practice and each took their turn at the helm of the family business.
In 1979, the well known Dayton Boot Company bought the rights to make Paris Boots. The building was sold for $375,000 and Pierre Paris & Sons became Paris Orthotics, which still does business out of Kitsilano to this day.
My 1990 scene shows the building on Hastings housing Idea Gift & Toy on the ground floor. This was a time when this part of West Hastings had begun to slip into economic decline. The building became run-down and abandoned.
It has now, recently, been turned into condos and is referred to as the Paris Block.
Limited Edition Prints
This Edition is limited to 200 signed and numbered prints and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Limited Edition Prints are available on stretched canvas, rolled canvas, fine art rag paper or photographic paper in a range of sizes from 36″ x 22″ (91.4 cm x 55.9 cm) (the original painting size), down to 24″ x 15″ (61 x 38.1 cm) on canvas or 18″ x 11″ (45.7 x 27.9 cm) on paper.
Open Edition Small Inkjet Poster
Small Posters are offered as a more affordable option to Limited Edition Prints. Open Edition simply means these prints are unsigned and unnumbered with no limits on how many can be printed and sold.
This image is also available as an Open Edition Small Inkjet Posters, which are high quality Inkjet prints laid out on a standard size, 19″ x 13″ (48.3 x 33 cm) (A3+), satin finish, photographic paper sheet. They include the artwork image with a title/artist line below. This option offers a very high quality image with great lightfastness and archival paper qualities.
Now also available in a half-size 13″ x 9.5″ (33 x 24.1 cm) format.