Rue Neuve-Coquenard (from the Rue Lamartine)

Art Historical Context

Step into the shadowy lanes of 19th-century Paris with *Rue Neuve-Coquenardfrom the Rue Lamart)*, a captivating albumen silver print by Marville from the 1870s. Marville, the official photographer the city of Paris under Emperor Napoleon III, meticulously documented the capital's medieval streets just before Baron Haussmann's sweeping urban transformed them into grand boulevards. This .6 x 27 cm image captures a narrow, winding alleyway lined with weathered buildings, offering a poignant glimpse of everyday life in the old quarters. The albumen silver print medium, popular in the mid-19th century, lends the photograph its rich tonal depth and fine detail, achieved by coating paper with egg whites and sensitizing it with silver salts. Marville's precise compositions highlight architectural textures—from crooked facades to cobblestone paths—preserving a vanishing world for posterity. These works were not mere records but artistic endeavors, blending documentary precision with an emerging photographic aesthetic. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (purchase, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1997), this print reminds us of Paris's radical rebirth, evoking nostalgia for its lost intimacy amid the march of modernity. A testament to photography's power as historical witness.

About the Artist

Charles Marville · 1813–1879

**Charles Marville**, born Charles François Bossu on July 17, 1813, in Paris, adopted his professional pseudonym around 1832 to avoid the stigma of "bossu," meaning hunchback in French. Trained as a painter, engraver, and illustrator, he spent nearly two decades producing woodblock illustrations for books and magazines before embracing photography around 1850. His transition coincided with the med...