ARIS IJV OLD AND PRESENT TIMES P. G. Hamepton . , 5 THE SAINTE CHAPELLE PARIS IN OLD AND PRESENT TIMES WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHANGES IN ITS ARCHITECTURE AND TOPOGRAPHY BY Philip Gilbert Hamerton 1 Ojficier a" Acadtmie WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS New Edition LONDON SEELEY AND CO., LIMITED ESSEX STREET, STRAND 1892 PREFACE IT is probable that there is not another city in the whole world that has undergone so many and such great changes as the capital of France. Those of us who have been familiar with Paris since the accession of Louis Napoleon have been eye-witnesses of the last of these, which consisted chiefly in improving the means of communication by opening wide new streets, and in erecting vast numbers of houses of a new type. From the sanitary point of view the change was most desirable and circulation was made easier from the artistic of view incomparably ; point there was a balance of loss and gain, as the old streets were not always, or often, worth preserving, whilst the new ones have always some pretension, at least to taste and elegance, and many new buildings are really good examples of modern intelligence and art. But there is a certain point of view from which this reconstruction of an ancient city was entirely to be regretted. Archaeologists deplored the efface- ment of a thousand landmarks, and if it had not been for their patient labours in preserving memorials of vi Preface the former city on paper, the topography of it would have been as completely effaced from the recollection of mankind as it is from the actual site. Were it not for the existence of a very few old buildings such as Notre Dame, the Sainte Chapelle, the Hotel de Cluny, and one or two other remnants of past archi- tectural glories, Paris might seem to date from the age of Louis XIV., and even the remaining works of the great king are not sufficiently numerous to give an aspect to the city, which seems as new as Boston or New York I had almost written, as Chicago. Whilst Avignon and Aiguesmortes preserve their ancient walls, the enceinte of Paris has been repeatedly demolished, carried farther out, and reconstructed on new principles of fortification. Whilst the palace of the Popes still rears its colossal mass on its rocky height near the Rhone, and withstands, unshaken, the unequalled violence of the mistral that sweeps down upon Avignon, the palace of the mediaeval kings has almost entirely disappeared from the island in the Seine, and the old castle of the Louvre is represented by an outline in white stone traced in the pavement of a quadrangle. Of the wall of Philippe-Auguste the very last tower has long since disappeared, and the grim fortress of the Bastille has utterly vanished from its site, known to modern Parisians as a stopping-place for omnibuses. Nor has the more modern palace of the Tuileries escaped a similar annihilation. The last stone of it was carted away Preface vii not long since, and our best record of its ruin is a little study or picture by Meissonier. Every year it becomes less and less profitable to visit Paris in ignorance of its past history, and therefore it has seemed to me that such an account of the city as I should care to write must include constant reference to what has been as well as a sufficiently clear description of what is. This has not been done before in our language, and would not have been possible now if the admirable labours of many French archaeologists had not supplied the materials. I need not add that whenever anything could be verified by personal observation, I have taken the trouble to see things for myself. Paris has been very familiar to me for nearly thirty years, but in spite of this long intimacy with the place I went to stay there again with a view especially to the present work. I may add that, although I have written little hitherto about architecture, it has always been a favourite study of mine, and I have neglected no opportunity of increasing such knowledge of it as a layman may possess. The facts about the history and construction of edifices given in the present volume I be relied as may, believe, always upon ; for mere opinions, I give them for what they may be worth. The best way is for a critic to say quite candidly what he thinks, but not to set up any claim to authority. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ...... i II. LUTETIA ...... 24 III. A VOYAGE ROUND THE ISLAND . ~. 49 IV. NOTRE DAME AND THE SAINTE CHAPELLE . 90 V. THE TUILERIES AND THE LUXEMBOURG . 127 VI. THE LOUVRE ...... 149 VII. THE HOTEL DE VILLE . .186 VIII. THE PANTHEON, THE INVALIDES, AND THE MADE- LEINE ...... 206 IX. ST. EUSTACHE, ST. EJIENNE DU MONT, AND ST. SULPICE .*..... 226 X. PARKS AND GARDENS ..... 249 XI. MODERN PARISIAN ARCHITECTURE . 276 XII. THE STREETS . 308 ILLUSTRATIONS THE SAINTE CHAPELLE. BY A. BRUNET-DEBAINES Frontispiece PAGE TRANSEPT OF NOTRE DAME. BY H. TOUSSAINT . 5 THE HOTEL DE CLUNY. BY H. TOUSSAINT . 9 OLD HOUSE WITH TOURELLE. BY A. BRUNET-DEBAINES 13 THE HOTEL DE CLUNY. BY H. TOUSSAINT . 17 THE OLD MAISON DIEU, AND NORTH TRANSEPT OF NOTRE DAME. BY A. BRUNET-DEBAINES . 21 THE FRIGIDARIUM OF THE ROMAN BATHS, CALLED LES THERMES. BY H. TOUSSAINT .... 29 THE GRAND CHATELET 33 THE TOUR DE NESLE. FROM THE ETCHING BY CALLOT . 41 THE LOUVRE OF PHILIPPE-AUGUSTE ... 45 PARIS FROM THE WINDOWS OF THE LOUVRE. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 51 GARDEN EAST OF NOTRE DAME .... 57 BATHING HORSES IN THE SEINE. BY G. P. JACOMB HOOD 61 PONT NOTRE DAME, iS'ra CENTURY ... 65 THE PUMP NEAR THE PONT NOTRE DAME, 1861 . 69 THE PONT NEUF IN 1845 -73 ' ' . THE MORGUE IN 1840 . ;. 79 xii Illustrations PAGE THE LITTLE CHATELET, TAKEN FROM THE PETIT PONT IN 1780 ...... 83 THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE IN 1650. FROM AN ETCHING BY ISRAEL SYLVESTRE ..... 87 THE APSE OF NOTRE DAME. BY MERYON. REPRODUCED BY AMAND DURAND ..... 93 TYMPANUM OF THE PORTE STE. ANNE . ... 97 PlER AND ONE OF THE DOORS OF THE PORTE STE. ANNE 99 LES TRIBUNES ...... 103 THE POURTOUR ...... 107 ROYAL THANKSGIVING IN NOTRE DAME, 1782 . in THE OLD COURT OF ACCOUNTS AND THE SAINTE CHAPELLE 119 ST. Louis IN THE SAINTE CHAPELLE . 123 THE TUILERIES IN 1837 . 138 THE LUXEMBOURG AS IT WAS BUILT . 145 THE LOUVRE IN ITS TRANSITION STATE FROM GOTHIC TO RENAISSANCE . .151 THE LOUVRE, FROM THE SEINE. FROM A DRAWING BY ' H. TOUSSAINT . -155 THE LOUVRE. BY A. P. MARTIAL . 159 DETAILS BY PIERRE LESCOT IN THE QUADRANGLE . 163 THE CLASSICAL PAVILION AND THE OLD EASTERN TOWER 167 THE INTERIOR OF THE QUADRANGLE. FROM A DRAWING BY H. TOUSSAINT . .171 QUADRANGLE OF THE LOUVRE, WITH THE STATUE OF FRANCIS I., PLACED THERE IN 1855, AND SINCE REMOVED. BY H. TOUSSAINT . 173 THE COLONNADE. FROM A DRAWING BY H. TOUSSAINT 175 AN OLD ROOM IN THE LOUVRE . .181 THE HOTEL DE VILLE. BY A. P. MARTIAL . 187 Illustrations xiii PAGE FRONT OF THE HUTEL DE VILLE IN THE TIME OF Louis XIII. 191 THE HOTEL DE VILLE IN 1583. FROM A DRAWING BY JACQUES CELLIER ..... 195 THE GREAT BALLROOM ..... 201 THE PANTHEON. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 209 THE PANTHEON FROM THE GARDENS OK THE LUXEMBOURG. BY MAXIME LALANNE ..... 213 THE INVALIDES. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 218 THE MADELEINE. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 222 THE CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE . 229 THE CHURCH OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT. FROM A SKETCH BY A. BRUNET-DEBAINES . 233 INTERIOR OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT . 237 WEST FRONT OF ST. ETIENNE DU MONT . 241 THE CHURCH OF ST. SULPICE .... 247 CHILDREN IN THE GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES. BY A. LALAUZE . /.. .251 GRAND AVENUE OF THE TUILERIES. BY MAXIME LALANNE 257 LAKE IN THE BUTTES CHAUMONT. BY MAXIME LALANNE 259 AVENUE OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES. BY MAXIME LALANNE 263 THE GARDEN OF THE LUXEMBOURG. BY MAXIME LALANNE 264 LAKE IN THE Bois DE BOULOGNE. BY MAXIME LALANNE 267 IN THE CHAMPS ELYSEES. BY LEON LHERMITTE . 271 THE SEA-FIGHT PARC DE MONCEAU. BY MAXIME LALANNE ....... 275 DOORWAY OF A MODERN HOUSE . 283 THE OPERA. SIDE VIEW ..... 285 THE OPERA. THE PRINCIPAL FRONT 280 xiv Illustrations PAGE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE . 293 THE CHURCH OF ST. AUGUSTINE . 297 INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF LA TRINITE . 301 THE CHURCH OF LA TRINITE . 3S THE BOULEVARD MONTMARTRE. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 311 BOULEVARD ST. GERMAIN. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 315 THE RUE ST. ANDRE. BY LEON LHERMITTE . 319 AVENUE FRIEDLAND. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 323 HOTEL DE SENS. BY MAXIME LALANNE . 327 THE MAIRIE AND ST. GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS . 329 A PARIS WASH-HOUSE . 335 RUE DES CHIFFONNIERS, PARIS. DRAWN BY LEON LHERMITTE ... 339 PARIS IN OLD AND PRESENT TIMES INTRODUCTION NATIONALITY affects our estimates of everything, but most especially does it affect our estimate of great cities. There is no city in the world that does not stand in some peculiar relation to our own and even those* cities that seem nationality ; quite outside of it are still seen through it, as through an atmosphere coloured by our national prejudices or obscured by our national varieties of ignorance. Again, not only does nationality affect our esti- mates, but our own individual idiosyncrasy affects them to a degree which unthinking persons never even suspect. We come to every city with our own peculiar constitution, which no amount of education can ever alter fundamentally, and we test everything in the place by its relation to our own mental and even physical needs.