Paris Bry Auguste Lithographer (1 results)

Oblong folio. (10 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches). Lithographed title page with a view of the Palais de l'Industrie and 25 tinted lithographed plates (haphazardly numbered, but complete). Finely bound in full brown morocco, spine with raised bands forming six compartments, boards and spine ruled gilt. Marbled endpapers, gilt dentelles. All edges gilt A striking portfolio of mid-19th-century Parisian views produced during a period of intense visual and infrastructural transformation. A rare album documenting the architectural and urban transformation of Paris during the Second Empire. Issued by Martinet, a leading publisher of illustrated works in mid-19th-century France, the album captures many of the city's most recognizable monuments and public spaces as they appeared during Baron Haussmann's radical redesign of Paris. Among the views included are the Arc de Triomphe, the Panthéon, the Jardin du Palais Royal, the Colonne de la Place Vendôme, the newly rebuilt Louvre, and the Palais de l'Industrie, erected for the 1855 Exposition Universelle and a signature project of Napoleon III's modernization campaign. Published at a time when Paris was being refashioned into a model imperial capital, the present work offers a compelling visual record of the city's architectural self-image. The use of tinted lithography lends the scenes a quiet, almost romantic clarity, emphasizing both the monumental and the picturesque.…