Beautiful image ‘with power to shock’ a highlight of 19th century art sale

After the harrowing images in recent news reports, Francophiles will find solace in beautiful paintings of Paris which feature in the catalogue for a sale of 19th century art taking place on Wednesday, January 21st at Bonhams in London.

The highlight is a painting titled Une Parisienne, by Ernest Ange Duez which dates from 1883 and is estimated at £60,000-£80,000.

Bonhams said the image of "the independent young Parisian woman walking along an open boulevard, her sober but fashionable dress offset by a bouquet of bright flowers" was "a vision of Paris made famous by artists such as Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, and writers from Balzac to Zola".

Hard to believe now but, according to a catalogue note, "by the social standards of the time, Une Parisienne could be seen as a challenging image; depicting an unaccompanied woman in an urban setting was a subject that in the 1880s still had the power to shock."

Other Parisian pictures in the sale include an image of Place de la République by Edouard Henri Leon Cortès and one of La Bastille by Eugène Galien-Laloue, each estimated at £8,000-£12,000.

See bonhams.com