Paris Is Always a Good Idea

This spring and summer you can visit Paris, and France, without leaving Cleveland—not the France of today but the one inhabited by Édouard Manet (1832–1883) and Berthe Morisot (1841–1895). France in the Time of Manet and Morisot, drawn from the museum’s photography collection, complements the exhibition Manet & Morisot, on view at the museum through July 5. The exhibition chronicles the period that gave rise to Impressionism, which was a tumultuous yet fertile era in French history: the Second Empire. Established by Napoleon III in 1852, it ended with his capture, and ultimately the country’s defeat, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. 

The rise of industrialization led to a shift from rural to urban living, doubling the population of Paris. Massive urban renewal projects transformed it from a medieval to a modern city—the largest in continental Europe. Living in cities led to nostalgia for, and romanticization of, rural life. At the same time, railroad expansion sped up transportation between the capital and the rest of the country, spurring trade and tourism and strengthening the sense of a national identity. 

These transformations coincided with the birth and rise of a new medium: photography. The process was widely used to chronicle social, political, and cultural changes. The government commissioned a national photographic survey. It hired photographers, including Charles Marville, Édouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, Henri le Secq, and Auguste Mestral, to record the soon-to-be demolished medieval quarters of cities, the soon-to-be restored historical monuments, and the new architectural and engineering marvels that were under construction. Their photographs show cathedrals, triumphal arches, ancient stone bridges and modern railway viaducts, as well as the newly broadened avenues of Paris.

Photography also allowed individuals of modest and moderate means, for the first time, to have their likeness recorded. A portrait of a Black horseman in the exhibition may be one of the earliest photographic representations of a high-ranking military officer of color. During the Second Empire, France expanded its colonial activities in Africa through its Armée d’Afrique. The rider’s uniform identifies him as a major in its cavalry, the Chasseurs d’Afrique. He may have been born and raised in France or may have been African-born and in France for training.

Successful portrait studios such as those run by Nadar, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, and Étienne Carjat not only took a client’s portrait but also offered for sale images of the popular actors, authors, musicians, and other eminent figures of the time. Collecting those photographs became a craze. They were mounted in albums that were displayed in parlors alongside family albums. Voilà! The birth of celebrity culture.

The Second Empire had a reverence for the old and an adoration of the new. It saw destruction and construction, peace and war. It led to the birth of the France we know today. In this exhibition, we can feel that, like Berthe Morisot, Édouard Manet, and the photographers who depicted the era, we are eyewitnesses to France’s transformation.