Artwork
Parisian Street Scene
Parisian Street Scene is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Jean Béraud. It dates from 1893 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The inclusion of an advertising column and the city’s architectural elements underscores the era’s commercialization and public life.
The painting depicts a Parisian street scene in the late 19th century, characterized by its urban modernity and social interactions. Béraud’s composition captures a bustling city environment, with figures including a woman and a man amid the urban landscape. The inclusion of an advertising column and the city’s architectural elements underscores the era’s commercialization and public life.
The work reflects the cultural shift toward modernity in Paris, emphasizing the intersection of daily routines, social presence, and the city’s evolving public spaces during the 1880s.
Technique & Style
Jean Béraud's Parisian Street Scene, created in 1885, is an oil painting executed on a panel support. The work measures 38.7 centimeters in height and 26.8 centimeters in width, presenting a compact yet detailed urban view. The medium of oil paint allows for the precise rendering of figures, including men and women, set against a backdrop of city streets and advertising columns.
This combination of materials and scale reflects the artist's characteristic approach to capturing fleeting moments of Parisian life with clarity and formal precision. The painting remains part of the Robert Lehman collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where its condition and stylistic execution continue to exemplify late 19th-century genre painting techniques.
History & Provenance
The work titled Parisian Street Scene was painted by Jean Béraud in 1885 using oil on panel. It was created as an independent painting, not documented as a commission, and reflects the everyday urban life of Paris. After its execution the canvas entered the collection of American philanthropist Robert Lehman, who donated his holdings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the work remains on view.
The dating is firmly established by contemporary records to 1885, and the piece is classified as an oil painting within the museum’s European paintings department.
Jean Béraud's 1885 oil painting Parisian Street Scene is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work, executed on panel, measures 38.7 by 26.8 centimeters and is currently owned by the Robert Lehman collection within the museum. While the provided sources confirm its institutional location and physical dimensions, they do not specify a unique museum accession number or list any past exhibition history for this specific piece.
Overview
Jean Béraud's 1893 oil painting, Parisian Street Scene, offers a glimpse into the daily life of late 19th-century Paris. As a French artist associated with the Impressionist movement, Béraud frequently depicted urban environments, capturing the city's atmosphere and its inhabitants. This particular work is now part of the collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jean Béraud (French: ; 12 January 1849 – 4 October 1935) was a French painter renowned for his numerous paintings of life in Paris and especially its nightlife.
