Beraud's Le Pont Des Arts Par Grand Vent Leads 19th Century Art Sale

Image: Jean Béraud, 1849 - 1935, French, Le Pont Des Arts Par Grand Vent 

Likely painted in situ, Jean Béraud later expanded this panel into his larger canvas, Pont des Arts par grand vent, now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

Jean Béraud, 1849 - 1935, French, Le Pont Des Arts Par Grand Vent 

Béraud is most celebrated for his accurate depictions of the modernizing metropolis of Paris, steeped in centuries-old history. He frequently painted the banks of the Seine, and this view is set at the north entrance to the Pont des Arts, looking from the Louvre across the river to the Institut de France. The classical Baroque structure of the Institut, a symbol of the Ancien Régime, stands resolute above the first metal bridge in Paris, built between 1801 and 1804 under Napoleon I. A symbol of the transience of urban modernity, the innovative, industrial bridge has been hastily pasted with brightly colored notices and announcements, piled on top of one another and ever changing to advertise the latest fashion or attraction. 

Fighting against the wind as they cross the Seine, people scurry with umbrellas, gentlemen hold on to their hats, and a woman descends the steps as her scarf takes flight, which, unbeknownst to her, catches the eye of the bearded man strolling behind. The woman in black captures the essence of voir et être vu, the desire to both see and be seen in late-nineteenth century Paris. As Gloria Groom explains, "[Jean Béraud] specialized in modestly scaled scenes of fashionable people experiencing the boulevards and radiating intersections of Paris as if on a stage, aware that they are being watched" (Gloria Groom, "Spaces of Modernity," Fashion, Impressionism and Modernity, exh. cat., Musée d’Orsay, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago, 2012-2013, p. 165).

19th Century European Art, Sotheby's, New York

1 February

Lot 402