Rue Mondétour, de la rue Rambuteau
1860s–70s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 11 1/16 × 10 11/16 in. (28.1 × 27.2 cm) Mount: 23 3/4 × 16 1/4 in. (60.3 × 41.3 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.1297
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step back into the narrow, teeming alleys of 1860s–70s Paris with Charlesville's *Rue Mondétour, de la Rambuteau*. This albumen silver print a glass negative captures a street scene: cobblestone pavement flanked by weathered buildings, wooden carts, and stacked barrels, evoking the rhythm of urban life in the city's historic heart. Marville served as the official photographer for Baron Haussmann's sweeping urban renewal under Napoleon III, tasked with recording Paris's medieval neighborhoods before they were razed for wide boulevards and modern infrastructure. Streets like Rue Mondétour and R...
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...