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Place and Barrière de la Nation, Paris (recto)

Maker

(artist)
1763-1843

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1830

Medium

black chalk, grey wash, and bodycolour (recto and verso) on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 18.4 cm
Width: 30.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3463

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Drawing on both sides of a small sketch sheet - probably as field studies for a more finished work - Michel shows the remains of a city wall and Ledoux's twinned propylea, whose original role for the farming of tax had long been abolished, at what was then known as the Barrière de la Nation. It is presented simply as an approach to the metropolis. Almost cinematically, he moves from one drawing to the next, ever closer to the entrance to the city, showing farmers returning from the city markets with their empty carts, coaches moving with dispatch to provincial towns, and city-dwelleres of varous castes resting and dining sur l'herbe. It is both a commentary on the interaction and interdependence between city and country, and a celebration of the place of a city park in enacting a freer and more open society.

Provenance

Sotheby's (London), 5 October 1943, lot 20; purchased there by Colnaghi (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), 18 January 1944 (£9); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - A Civic Utopia: Architecture and the City in France, 1765-1837, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 08/10/2016-08/01/2017

A selection of drawings from the Witt collection: French drawings c. 1600-c. 1800, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1962

French Master Drawings, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1962 ...More

France 1850-1950, Kettering Art Gallery, 1950 (June)

Landscape in French Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1949-1950 ...Less

Literature

Drawings Gallery Display - A Civic Utopia: Architecture and the City in France, 1765-1837, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2016-17
p. 5
pls. 3 and 4

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: none.

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