'PARIS, - ON THE BOULEVARD'
by Jean Beraud (1849-1936)
Here is an inspiring glimpse at the recorded beauty of quite uneventful, everyday history. It is a sunny spring morning just before high noon, more than a century ago. But it is depicted in such a realistic way that we could easily be here ourselves. For Beraud was a master of his subject as a 'painter of people'. Not just an observer and recorder of street life, but he possessed the ability to entice us into his pictures.
We are actually amongst the other pedestrians along this busy pavement, strolling along with them;- looking at the fine dresses, smelling the perfumes and noticing so many details just as we would do nowadays. We are just about to mount the kerb walking towards the Restaurant Americain. Perhaps we shall stop there for a cup of freshly roasted coffee before lunching? The rich aroma really does entice people along to partake their offerings.
All the people in the view are elegantly dressed. Many here would be described as meandering 'Boulevardiers', just enjoying the sights and just being present in this delightful atmosphere. As observers of this enchanting moment we are sharing this with them too. On the right a couple are passing the restaurant accompanied by their little dog. The woman, whose hat and parasol are carefully decorated with flowers, is engrossed in conversation. Just behind them a mother and her son are taking her father for his afternoon stroll. Beside the prominent circular hoarding, an elderly gentleman looks for a treat for his granddaughter, but she is far more interested in watching the small boy in his elegant 'sailor's suite'.
Nearby a single gentleman stands casually in a long grey overcoat reading his daily paper. Some news item has caught his eye and he is totally engrossed by it. Leaning out into the boulevard is a dashing young officer accompanied by his lady. Perhaps they have just been taking coffee at the restaurant. He is caught here gesturing with his hand probably to hail a hansom cab.
From the early 1850's Paris underwent a major transformation from an old medieval city to the magnificent metropolis of the Third Republic. Baron Haussmann, appointed by Napoleon III as Prefect of the Seine from 1853 to 1870, oversaw the work which was to make him famous. He demolished the small squares and un-sanitary narrow streets of the old city and laid out in their place wide avenues and tree-lined boulevards in a grand post-Revolutionary scheme.
'Boulevard' comes from the Dutch Bulwerc which means Bulwark or Rampart - indeed the first boulevards were wide promenades circumventing the whole of central Paris, on the site of the original city walls. They became so famous in the nineteenth century that the term 'Boulevardier' was coined for those who 'parade' themselves on the boulevards. In their heyday, which this painting symbolises, they were lined with cafes and fashionable shops and frequented by financiers, journalists, men of letters and the newly-rich classes.
What happened in the rest of these people's lives we can but imagine. But on this day they were all out parading on the boulevard.
Born in St. Petersburg of French parents in 1849, Jean Beraud grew up in Paris, studying at the Lycée Bonaparte under Bonnat, and painting in both oils and in watercolour. In 1870, he left his studies to take part in the defence of Paris against the Prussian invaders. From 1873, he exhibited regularly at the Salon and became a founder-member of the Société National des Beaux -Arts, exhibiting there from 1919 to 1929. Many of his paintings record Paris city life in the 1880's and 90's, shortly after the transformation of that city. In 1889 he was awarded a gold medallion at the Great Universal Exhibition.
