Artists’ views of Paris: the place de l'Europe neighbourhood

The birth of place de l'Europe and its neighbourhood

 _{Auguste Victor Deroy (1825-1906), Paris. Bird's-eye view of place de l'Europe as it will look when fully completed. Woodblock print.} 

 _{Location:  place de l'Europe}  

In 1823, Sylvain Mignon, an entrepreneur, and Jonas Hagerman, a banker, signed an agreement to merge their respective plots of land in what was to become the Europe neighbourhood ("Quartier de l'Europe"), forming a complex of nearly 50 hectares. As the design of new streets requires the authorisation of public authorities, the two men presented ambitious plans to the City Council and then to the State, which were amended several times. The Royal Decree of 2 ^nd  February 2 1826 authorised the promoters to undertake the work at their own expense.

The vast octagonal Place de l'Europe, 130 metres in diameter, started taking shape. It was paved in 1827. Rue de Londres and Rue de Constantinople ran through it, connecting the Chaussée d'Antin neighbourhood with the village of Monceau. Other streets were also built on either side of the square, in a star-shaped urban layout: Rue de Vienne, Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg, Rue de Naples, Rue de Rome, Rue de Madrid and Rue de Liège.

In 1837, the construction of a railway line linking Paris to Le Pecq, and to Saint-Germain-en-Laye starting in 1847, really transformed the layout of the neighbourhood. A tunnel crossing the square from south to north was dug in place of Rue de Naples and Rue de Rome, which were relocated. A landing stage for boats taking passengers from the corner of Rue de Londres and place de l'Europe was set up, with another landing stage below Rue de Stockholm for passengers to disembark at. The wooden buildings erected were temporary at first. They were soon replaced by stone ones. These buildings and Rue de Stockholm later disappeared, replaced by successive expansions of the railway installations.

The pont de l’Europe et la gare Saint-Lazare

 _{Pierre-Auguste Lamy (1827-1883), Bridge Erected on the Place de l'Europe, over the Western Region Railway.} 

 _{Location:  place de l'Europe}  

The creation of the railways gave rise to considerable stock market speculation, with an ever-growing number of rail promoters. From then on, the choice of location for the train terminus was very important with regards to planning large-scale urban development projects, highly lucrative at the time.

The first terminus, below Place de l'Europe, was inaugurated on 24 August 24 1837. In 1840, the tracks were gradually widened, then extended southwards to Rue Saint-Lazare. The station then took on its current structure and name. Thereafter, the tracks and train lines were constantly extended, linking Paris and Rouen in 1840, and Le Havre in 1847.

In 1863, it was decided to reorganise Place de l'Europe and have it replaced with a metal viaduct, designed by engineer Adolphe Jullien. Inaugurated in 1868, the "square-bridge" offered passers-by a perfect view of the railway installations. In the 1880s, after a final phase of expansion, the station comprised no fewer than 28 platforms, with each train carrying an average of 500 passengers. The Pont de l'Europe was rebuilt with concrete in 1930.

Norbert Gœneutte's studio

 _{Norbert Gœneutte (1854-1894), view of Saint-Lazare Railway Station, 1887.}  

 _{Location:  rue de Constantinople}  

While the original development project for the Europe neighbourhood was approved in 1826, the sale of building lots happened over a long time. The plots located to the south-east, near the inviting Chaussée d'Antin, sold more quickly than those near the railway, which offered a noisier environment initially unwelcoming to developers.

But on 1 ^st  January 1860, when Paris was extended from the Mur des Fermiers Généraux ("Wall of the Farmers-General") to the Enceinte de Thiers ("Thiers Wall), the Batignolles-Monceau municipality was largely annexed by the city of Paris to form the brand new 17 ^th  arrondissement, of which the plots for sale were now part.

From then on, the urbanisation of the Europe neighbourhood accelerated rapidly under the directives of Baron Haussmann. As the Gare Saint-Lazare gained in appeal, Haussmann-style buildings were built in its surrounding streets, replacing the "Petite-Pologne" working-class area. The neighbourhood was frequented by a relatively well-off population, who strolled along the main boulevards and used the railway lines to go and get some fresh air in the countryside.

Norbert Gœneutte lived at 62 Rue de Rome. His studio overlooked the Pont de l'Europe and the railway infrastructures he loved to paint. He frequented the Père Lathuille restaurant, in the Batignolles neighbourhood, where he met Manet, Zola, Degas and Renoir. In this painting, dated 1887, the painter captured the contrast between the steam of the locomotives in perpetual motion and the permanence of the recently built buildings, with the imposing mass of the Palais Garnier in the distance, in line with the railway buildings.

Claude Monet and the gare Saint-Lazare

 _{Claude Monet (1840-1926), The gare Saint-Lazare} 

 _{Location:  place de l'Europe}  

In the 1870s, the growth of the railway network in a rapidly changing Paris aroused the interest of painters working on the fringes of the artistic canons, who saw it as a fascinating subject of modernity. Claude Monet was captivated by the Gare Saint-Lazare, where the hustle and bustle of the platforms, the steam from the locomotives and the reverberations of light produced ever-changing impressions, establishing the station as a place in eternal motion.

In 1872, he rented a studio at 8 Rue de l'Isly, very close to the station. He was then granted permission to set up his easel inside the station itself to paint the movement of trains and passengers. In January 1877, he moved into a studio at 17 Rue Moncey, which Gustave Caillebotte had made available to him. Thus, at the Third Impressionist Exhibition, he was able to present a series of eleven paintings dedicated to the Gare Saint-Lazare. A charmed Émile Zola remarked: "Our artists have to find poetry in train stations the way their fathers found poetry in forests and rivers." With sensitivity, Monet made the imperceptible smoke, fog and noise stand out.

The Gare Saint-Lazare and its rail lines allowed Monet to get to Normandy, where he had spent part of his childhood, to paint coastal landscapes. The station, a transit area between two worlds, represented a new field of investigation for painters in the Europe neighbourhood.

The pont de l’Europe, fantasy of progress

 _{Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), The pont de l’Europe, 1876.} 

 _{Location:  place de l'Europe}  

Gustave Caillebotte helped finance the impressionist exhibitions and often assisted his friends, including Monet, Renoir and Pissarro, by buying their paintings or lending them studios.

In this painting, Caillebotte channelled the sense of astonishment and fascination that passers-by experienced when crossing this impressive metal bridge, completed in 1868. The balustrade offers a view of the bustling trains at the Gare Saint-Lazare.

The composition follows the geometric lines of the bridge. Caillebottes' lines are more precise and the technique different from that of the Impressionists. The painter captured the contrast between a bourgeois couple, strolling and chatting along the pavement, and a worker contemplating the tracks. With ambiguity, Caillebotte depicted the new city, born of technical progress, which, just like the monuments of yesteryear, deserved to be a place for strolling and meeting people. And yet, the different Parisian social classes seem to cohabit in this neighbourhood without seeing or speaking to each other, each moving within the invisible lane reserved for them. The dog zigzagging between passers-by as well as the long perspective of the bridge define a skyline towards the Haussmann buildings surrounding Place de l'Europe. The bridge over the Gare Saint-Lazare symbolises society's transition into the modern era.

A new place to stroll

 _{Jean Béraud, The place and the pont de l’Europe, 1876-1878.} 

 _{Location:  place de l'Europe}  

Jean Béraud's depiction of Place de l'Europe is rather surprising. Through his painting, he offers an off-centre view of the square that does not exactly showcase the place. Instead, he chose to highlight the strollers and the extent of their playground. Here, Béraud, a regular guest at high-society salons, represents the wealthy bourgeoisie in all its diversity: a couple, a woman with her child, solitary passers-by, on foot or in a horse-drawn carriage. Everyone passes each other on the square, without being hindered by others. But here, only the bourgeois have the luxury of making strolling a regular, peaceful activity.

At a time when photography was booming, painting was still considered by the public to be a more noble way of depicting quotidian activities. Nevertheless, a certain influence from photography can be felt in the sharpness and movement of the figures. The details in the clothes reflect the standards of parisian fashion and elegance. The afternoon light shines on the Haussmann buildings, perhaps inhabited by these same passers-by.

Édouard Manet's studio

 _{Édouard Manet, The rue Mosnier with pavers, 1878.} 

 _{Location:  intersection Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg / Rue de Berne}  

In 1872, Édouard Manet moved into the first floor of 4 Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg. The window overlooked the junction with Rue Mosnier, renamed Rue de Berne in 1884. Manet lived there until 1878. From his apartment, he painted three pictures depicting one end of this small street that connected Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg et Rue de Moscou. La Rue Mosnier aux Paveurs (The Rue Mosnier with Pavers) bears witness to the development of the neighbourhood during the 1870s and 1880s. Next to workers in white smocks laying paving stones, horse-drawn carriages are parked. There is an ongoing move further down the street. Manet represented an ordinary afternoon scene, but one that reveals the neighbourhood's deep urban transformations. Despite the hustle and bustle of the workers, the colours of the s and the vegetation lining the windows convey an impression of a cool summer. Manet's tight framing of the subject gives the scene an intimate tone, away from the hectic, sociable atmosphere of the Europe neighbourhood.

In 1886, to extend the Gare Saint-Lazare, a covered market was built on the corner of Rue de Berne and Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg, on the site of the advertising hoarding seen in Manet's painting. After being occupied by a Citroën garage from 1931 to 1939, the market was demolished. The current postal sorting centre was built in its place.

Caillebotte and strollers in place de Dublin

 _{Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Paris, street, rainy day.} 

 _{Location:  place de Dublin}  

Rue de Saint-Pétersbourg was one of the first streets to be built in the Europe neighbourhood. First opened in 1826, linking Place de l'Europe to Place de Clichy, it crosses Rue de Moscou, Rue de Turin and Rue Clapeyron, which meet at Place de Dublin. Place de Dublin can be seen in the background of Caillebotte's painting, trodden on by passers-by and surrounded by Haussmann buildings.

Caillebotte, who was born into a wealthy family, lived for a long time on the outskirts of the neighbourhood, on Rue de Lisbonne and then Rue de Miromesnil. In Rue de Paris, jour de pluie (Paris Street; Rainy Day), he captured the proportions and elegance of the modern city. The depth of field, emphasised by the perspective of the streets, inevitably draws the eye.

Caillebotte's off-center focus in this painting came was a source of surprise at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877. This choice reflected the emerging influence of photography on painting. Modern architecture also allowed the painter to play with perspective. In the foreground, a strolling couple seems to be heading straight for the viewer. They are the only identifiable characters; the other anonymous passers-by are shielded from outside interaction by their identical overcoats and umbrellas. The monotonous atmosphere of this scene perhaps reflects Caillebotte's reflections on the conception of the modern city.