If you like Paris as much as I do, get yourself to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and visit ‘Iconic Photographs of 19th-Century Paris by Charles Marville,’ January 29-May 4, 2014. Recognized as one of the most talented photographers of the 19th Century, Marville, as official photographer of the city of Paris captures a Paris that can only be seen through his photographs today. He was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III to record old Paris’s neighborhoods and streets that would soon be demolished to make way for Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s wide boulevards and public structures. What remain in Marville’s historic photographs of old Paris are narrow streets and passages and facades with multiple roof heights and projections. Many of the photographs appear to be devoid of daily human life, when in reality these were bustling city streets. The medium of photography was in its infancy, and long exposure times account for the almost ghost-like quality of the masses of passerby and horse and carriage. I found myself lost in a Paris exquisitely recorded by a master. Thank you to The MET for taking me there.
Quai du Louvre in the Snow, ca. 1852 Salted paper print from paper negative Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris cat. no. 13
The École des Beaux-Arts in the Snow, December 31, 1852 or 1853 Salted paper print from paper negative
Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris
cat. no. 14
Entrance to the Château of the Bagatelle, 1858—1862 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Impasse de l’Essai from the Horse Market (Fifth Arrondissement), ca. 1868 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Bibliothèque de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris
cat. no. 74
Fragment of the Pillars of Les Halles (First Arrondissement), 1865 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris
cat. no. 57
Rue de la Bûcherie from the cul de sac Saint-Ambroise (Fifth Arrondissement), 1866— 1868
Albumen silver print from glass negative
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation through Robert and Joyce Menschel cat. no. 58
Rue de Constantine (Fourth Arrondissement), 1866
Albumen silver print from glass negative
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1986 (1986.1141)
cat. no. 56
Impasse de la Bouteille from the rue Montorgeuil (Second Arrondissement), 1865—1868 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 59
Interior of Les Halles Centrales, 1874
Albumen silver print from glass negative
The AIA/AAF Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
cat. no. 50
Passage de l’Opéra, Galerie de l’Horloge (Ninth Arrondissement), ca. 1868 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 67
Passage de l’Opéra from the rue Lepeletier (Ninth Arrondissement), ca. 1868 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 68
Passage Saint-Guillaume toward the rue Richilieu (First Arrondissement), 1863-1865 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Joy of Giving Something, Inc.
cat. no. 60
Passage Saint-Benoît (Sixth Arrondissement), 1864—1867 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 55
Detail of Passage Saint-Benoît from above.
Place Saint-André-des-Arts (Sixth Arrondissement), 1865—1868 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 63
Detail of Place Saint-André-des-Arts from above.
Lamppost, Entrance to the École des Beaux-Arts, ca. 1870 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Collection W. Bruce and Delaney H. Lundberg
cat. no. 99
Arts et Métiers (Ancien Modèle), 1864
Albumen silver print from glass negative
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2007 (2007.167)
cat. no. 104
Candelabra with Street Signs, avenue de l’Opèra, 1877—1878 Albumen silver print from glass negative
The Troob Family Foundation
cat. no. 101
Urinal, Jennings System, plateau de l’Ambigu, 1876 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 94
Top of the rue Champlain, View to the Right (Twentieth Arrondissement), 1877—1878 Albumen silver print from glass negative
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
cat. no. 92
PARIS AS MUSE, in conjunction with The Marville exhibition.
Ilse Bing (German, 1899–1998) Lamp Post, rue de la Chaise, Paris 1934 Gelatin silver printImage: 22.3 x 28.2 cm (8 3/4 x 11 1/8 in.) Bequest of Ilse Bing Wolff, 1998 2003.151.11
Brassaï (French (born Romania), Brașov 1899–1984 Côte d’Azur) Jour de Pluie aux Champs Elysées 1931 Gelatin silver print Image: 22.8 x 17.2 cm (9 x 6 3/4 in.) Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005 2005.100.574
Franck (French, 1816–1906) Canal St. Martin 1860 Albumen silver print from glass negative Image: 18.6 x 25.2 cm (7 5/16 x 9 15/16 in.) oval Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005 2005.100.380
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877) View of the Boulevards of Paris 1843 Salted paper print from paper negative Mount: 9 in. × 10 1/16 in. (22.8 × 25.6 cm) Sheet: 7 3/8 × 10 1/8 in. (18.7 × 25.7 cm) Image: 6 5/16 × 8 1/2 in. (16.1 × 21.6 cm) Bequest of Maurice B. Sendak, 2013 2013.159.57
As I left the MET, I was in a Paris-state-of-mind. West 79th Street as seen through my post museum experience.
Photography Beth Horta for Sweet Sabelle.