Paris Life

This charming set of drawings by an English hand are a wonderful depiction of French society in the 1820s. Following the end of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror in 1794, this was a time when French society began to stabilise and Parisians engaged in a new consumer culture. The artist captures a sense of fun and recreation in the everyday life that was newly playing out in Paris's urban spaces. The new bourgeoisie was reinventing the lifestyle of leisure in the city's streets, galleries and gardens: here in the Tuileries Garden, near the Pont Neuf, and inside Cafe Grignon in the fashionable new Galerie Vivienne.

Images 1-3: Somerset & Wood Fine Art

Image 4: © PMVP, cliché Berthier (Bibliothèque nationale de France)