The Visit of Napoléon III to Boulogne-sur-Mer
19th century
Medium
Pen and black ink, gray wash over graphite; heightened with white gouache
Dimensions
9 11/16 x 13 3/4 in. (24.6 x 34.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1963
Accession Number
63.167.7
Art Historical Context
Constantin Guys, a 19th-century French illustrator by poet Charles Baudelaire as "the painter of modern life captured the vibrancy of contemporary society in works like *The Visit oféon III to Boulog-sur-Mer*. Created during Second Empire, this drawing depicts the pomp of Emperor Napoléon III's public appearance in the northern French port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer a site of military reviews and imperial pageantry. Amidst architecture, monuments,, and a bustling crowd, Guys freezes a moment of national fervor, reflecting the era's blend of monarchy, spectacle, and urban energy. Rendered in pen...
About the Artist
Constantin Guys · 1802–1892
Constantin Guys, born Ernest-Adolphe-Hyacinthe-Constantin Guys de Saint-Hélène on December 3, 1802, in Vlissingen, Netherlands, to French parents François Lazare Guys and Elisabeth Bétin, spent his early years in a naval family that relocated to Calais around 1805. His early life is not well documented, with no records of formal art training, teachers, or schools; Guys appears to have been largely...