An echo of the French countryside soon will greet visitors to downtown Latrobe, with the debut of a new mural on the historic Danceland building.

The enlarged image of “Le Lutin pres du Loing,” a 1940 work by French painter Pierre Eugène Montézin, is set to be unveiled about 6:50 p.m. Thursday. The ceremony will take place immediately before lighting of the community Christmas tree at adjacent James Hillis Rogers Memorial Park, at Jefferson and Main streets.

Montézin’s original painting of a scene along a tributary to France’s Seine River is one of eight by that artist that are part of the Michael and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art at nearby Saint Vincent College’s Verostko Center for the Arts.

“We hope the sight of this tranquil river landscape will bring peace and happiness to everyone who sees it,” said Elizabeth Barker, director of the Verostko Center. “You can look at it over and over again and not be tired of seeing it.”

Despite its foreign origin, she said, “It’s a painting that lives right here in our backyard. Everyone can recognize trees coming to life in the springtime, with green leaves and pink blossoms.”

Montézin’s painting measures 281⁄2 by 231⁄2 inches but will be represented in a mural measuring roughly 10 by 81⁄2 feet.

The mural is the latest in a series of installations on Latrobe buildings that are recreations of locally curated paintings.

The Downtown Latrobe Mural Art Initiative is coordinated by a subcommittee of the local Be My Neighbor Committee, with representation from Saint Vincent College, the Latrobe Community Revitalization Program (LCRP), the Greater Latrobe School District Art Conservation Trust and the Latrobe Art Center.

Previously installed mural reproductions of paintings include two other images of outdoor scenery: “Father’s Garden” by Marty Lewis Cornelius, displayed on the side of a Depot Street building that is home to the POSH ink + beauty studio, and “Dark Hallow Falls” by Robert Cronauer, on the historic Potthoff building on Ligonier Street.

Four smaller painting-inspired murals adorn the Main Street facade of the Latrobe Art Center: “My East View” by Mary Martha Himler; “Tulips” by Bertha Gill Johnston; “Butterfly” by Bernard Leon Sachs; and “Theme and Variations,” featuring musical imagery, by Dorothy Adams Gennaccaro.

Each mural begins with a high-resolution digital image of the painting. Then, it’s printed on a thick vinyl canvas and put into a unique frame that stretches it, said Jarod Trunzo, LCRP executive director.

The UV-resistant mural images, produced by Chicago-based Alpina Manufacturing, have held up well during exposure to four seasons of weather, Trunzo said.

Because they aren’t painted directly on the wall, they can be switched with other images at some point.

The project’s first murals were unveiled a little over a year ago, at one of downtown Latrobe’s Night Market events.

“The public loved it, and we were encouraged to keep going,” Trunzo said.

In matching each painting with a mural location, he said, “The committee meets, we deliberate back and forth and come up with an idea. We’ve got to work with the property owner to make sure they’re on board.

“It’s a team effort to make this work.”

While LCRP is underwriting most of the cost of the Montézin mural installation, Danceland building owner Harry Lattanzio Jr. is covering the cost of lighting that will illuminate the image at dusk.

That mural is seen as an apt complement to the greenery in adjacent Rogers Park.

“It’s a continuation of that feeling,” Trunzo said of the mural. “It definitely seems like the right location.”

“This seems to have the color, the scale, everything,” agreed Steven Patricia, who serves as design architect for LCRP. “It’s a very peaceful image. It’s a good one to do there.”

The mural project is an outgrowth of an initial study, led by Patricia and funded through the Richard King Mellon Foundation, that looked at ways to incorporate art into Latrobe’s downtown.

“We had a committee that looked at it,” Patricia said. “We walked the town and looked at possible wall spaces.

“The important thing for me is to respect the artist’s original intent.”

He said there is an intent to continue installing murals and to add plaques to explain “what we’re doing and why.”

“This won’t be the last one,” Trunzo said of the Montézin mural.

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