Anon. Figures on Dieppe Quayside, Sunday

An original 1820s watercolour painting Figures on Dieppe Quayside, Sunday.

A charming drawing in brown ink and wash illustrating a bustle of activities on the quayside at Dieppe around 1820. The everyday figures include fishermen, women and children, a sailor, military drummer and girls playing on stilts. The scene is one of geniality and leisure, animated with colourful costumes and convivial interactions.

This drawing is one of a charming set of four scenes of French society in the 1820s that we have for sale, executed by an English hand. Following the end of Robespierre’s Reign of Terror in 1794, 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. The artist also suggests that this conviviality extends to Paris's street sellers, newly profiting from this urban development, and to the local inhabitants of Dieppe, a newly popular seaside retreat away from the capital.