Like many first-time Seattle visitors, Simon Lhopiteau was struck by the city’s natural beauty when he first visited five years ago.

“Between the mountains and the water, what I recall is being able to breathe good, fresh air,” Lhopiteau, an art historian, curator, and dealer, recently recalled. “In Paris, it doesn’t exist.”

After moving from Paris to Seattle two years later with his husband, Romain Darde, an international contract attorney at Blue Origin, the vibrant, active, and open-minded art community inspired him to open Galerie Orsay Paris-Seattle on Capitol Hill.

Located in the Loveless Building at the north end of Broadway’s commercial strip, the gallery occupies the vacated storefront occupied for 10 years by the clothing company Freeman. It’s an expansion of Lhopiteau’s Paris gallery, which he opened in 2004.

“When we were considering moving to Seattle, I thought about either getting older in my gallery in Paris or getting younger with a new adventure and a new gallery in Seattle,” Lhopiteau, 59, explained. “I chose to get younger!”

Lhopiteau was introduced to art at an early age—his grandparents collected art, and his mother studied at the School of Fine Arts, often taking Lhopiteau and his siblings to Paris museums. Lhopiteau studied art of the Italian Renaissance and 17th Century France while earning a master’s degree from the École du Louvre, a doctorate from the Sorbonne, and working for a year at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy.

The new gallery is a fitting tenant for the Loveless Building—an architectural gem with steeply gabled rooflines, dormer windows, pointed arches, and wood-and-stone construction reminiscent of a storybook English cottage—which was initially named the Studio Building owing to its role as a live/work destination for Seattle artists when it was built 95 years ago. Galerie Orsay Paris-Seattle also shares the building with The French Guys bakery, located around the corner on East Roy. It’s also two blocks from Lhopiteau and Darde’s home.

Offered for sale in the 930-square-foot Capitol Hill space are artworks by Franco-Russian abstract painter Marcelle Loubchansky; French photographer, painter, poet, and Pablo Picasso muse Dora Maar; Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró; Ukrainian-born French and Israeli sculptor Chana Orloff; and Hungarian cubist painter Alfréd Réth.

Two notable pieces include Henry Lyman Saÿen’s inscribed and colorful 171 Boulevard St. Germain (1910, oil on canvas, 18″x21″), depicting a sweeping view of Paris rooftops from Saÿen’s studio. According to Lhopiteau, there are only four Saÿen paintings like it—the Smithsonian has two, a private collector in Paris has one, and Lhopiteau has one. Another notable piece, Alexander Calder’s signed and dated Snake with Heart  (1972, ink and gouache on paper, 27″x39″), hangs prominently above the gallery’s unlit fireplace.

“The Calder gouache is very impressive,” he explained. “Calder gave it to one of his best friends, and it has stayed in the same family since 1972. I met the family owner years ago when they asked me to work for them as an expert, and they offered me the opportunity to purchase [the piece].”

In January, Lhopiteau hosted a book-launch party for documentary photographer Erica Hilario, adding Hilario’s contemporary black-and-white images to the mix of art for sale. He also curates and consults, helping individual collectors, large museums, and other clients organize their collections.

“North Capitol Hill is a great area, and the Loveless Building is very elegant,” he said, adding that he enjoys meeting new people, exchanging ideas, and sharing the stories behind the gallery’s paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints. “I believe that here in Seattle, I have the opportunity to focus on American, modern, and contemporary artists. It’s a chance for me to explore new leads and to share with people from the neighborhood and beyond.”

Galerie Orsay Paris-Seattle, located at 713 Broadway E, is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 PM or by appointment by emailing [email protected].

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