Pierre Gavarni

André Havard & Régis Bailluel, Bayeau
Acquired from the above in 1991

By the 1880s, the wealthy and fashionable bourgeoisie had largely abandoned the narrow passages and apartments of Paris' central city for the grand boulevards of the post-Haussman era. The expansive and orderly streets were flanked by the neat, white-plastered facades of grand hôtels with interiors that held all the comforts of modern living.  Despite the luxury of home, the social opportunities afforded by being out-of-doors were too tempting, and the beau monde spent much of their day, especially Sunday afternoons, riding and promenading on the boulevards—turning them into plein air Parisian receiving rooms.  Of all the boulevards, the Allée du Bois (now the Avenue Foch), running from the Bois de Bologne to the Arc de Triomphe, was one of the most exclusive; on horseback, in expensive carriage, or strolling in the best dress, a circuit was made from one end to the other, often finishing with a picnic in the cool of the Bois. As such, the Allée du Bois was the ideal venue for Gavarni who, like his artist father Paul Gavarni, was fascinated with the social interactions and implications of the turn-of-the-century city.  In addition to his careful observation, Gavarni most likely used photographs  to compose this intricate, narrative scene of daily life (painted circa 1880). Here a broad perspective allows overlapping movements in a tableau that nearly mimics a Classical frieze: an army general, his companion and  a jaunty hound; a group paused in conversation (perhaps admiring a newly acquired carriage); well-dressed children at play. Unlike many of the café or street scenes of the heart of Paris, here there is little interaction between the types de Paris. Instead, Gavarni shows the pristine world of the leisure class, who embodied the best of city living, and places the viewer among them, as if riding alongside in a carriage.  In so doing, Gavarni allows both viewer and observed to become, as one contemporary social critic remarked, a class of people who "thoroughly understood the street and realized a conception of it which has become a model of excellence" (Philip Gilbert Hamerton, Paris in Old and Present Times, London, 1892, p. 308).