Au Siège de Sebastopol (Rue de la Monnaie from the Rue de Rivoli)

Charles Marville is known for his photographs of Paris. He was named "photographer of the city of Paris" in 1862, and recorded the city both before and after Baron Haussmann's massive urban renewal projects of the 1860s.  The visual drama that characterizes Marville's depiction of the rue de la Monnaie is typical of his photographs of old Paris. The converging lines of architecture, sky, and road highlight the tight narrowness of the street, an aspect of old Paris that would soon be swept away by Haussmann's wide boulevards. Signs and figures animate the surface of the corner building, contrasting with the empty street and the stillness of the delivery wagons waiting there.