01 Painting, Streets of Paris, Jean Béraud's Le Pont Neuf, with footnotes, Part 85

Jean Béraud, French, 1849 - 1935

Le Pont Neuf

Oil on canvas

 24.2 by 33cm., 9½ by 13in.

Private collection

Estimate for 100,000 - 150,000 GBP in December 2009

Here, Béraud captures the spirit of the moment, as workers, bankers in top hats, bakers, an upholsterer carrying a chair on his head, and cabbies make their way across Paris's oldest bridge, even in Béraud's day a listed monument. Shoppers flock to the capital's recently opened retail emporium, the La Samaritaine department store, overlooking the Seine immediately behind the artist's vantage point. It is intriguing to speculate about the possible identity of the moustachioed artist carrying a stretched canvas under one arm and his paint box under the other. Could he be Béraud himself, the observer observing himself. More on this painting

The Pont Neuf is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city.

The bridge is composed of two separate spans, one of five arches joining the left bank to the Île de la Cité, another of seven joining the island to the right bank. Old engraved maps of Paris show that the newly built bridge just grazed the downstream tip of the Île de la Cité; since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island. Today the tip of the island is the location of the Square du Vert-Galant, a small public park named in honour of Henry IV, nicknamed the "Green Gallant".

The name Pont Neuf was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, and has remained after all of those were replaced. Its name notwithstanding, it has long been the oldest bridge in Paris crossing the Seine. It has been listed since 1889 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. More on The Pont Neuf

Jean Béraud (January 12, 1849 – October 4, 1935) was a French painter, noted for his paintings of Parisian life during the Belle Époque. He was renowned in Paris society due to his numerous paintings depicting the life of Paris, and the nightlife of Paris society. He also painted religious subjects in a contemporary setting. Pictures of the Champs Elysees, cafés, Montmartre and the banks of the Seine are precisely detailed illustrations of everyday Parisian era of the "Belle Époque". More on Jean Béraud

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