Marcel CARON (1890-1961) The pipe smoker at the café, 1926 Oil on canvas mounted on panel Signed and dated lower centre: "Marcel Caron 26". 65 x 55 cm This painting crystallises the influences of the Expressionist school of Laethem-Saint-Martin, and in particular the work of Constant Permeke and Gustave de Smet, with whom Marcel Caron had been associated since the early 1920s. He thus created a bridge between Flemish and Liège modernity. The newspaper in the foreground bears the title "L'Escalier", the same name as the group founded in 1926 by the three leading modern painters of the day in Liège: Edgar Scauflaire, Auguste Mambour and Marcel Caron.