Fontaine du Jardin du Luxembourg (grotte de Marie de Médécis)
1850
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1850
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a quiet stone grotto with a white marble statue of Venus standing in a shallow pool. Water trickles down the mossy rocks behind her. This photo was taken around 1850, just before the fountain was moved and rebuilt. The statue you see here is the same one that still sits in the Luxembourg Gardens today—just in a different spot. Marville caught the fountain in a rare, in-between moment. To see how Paris changed its streets, look up the work of Charles Marville (French, 1813–1879).
