Place du Parvis, Notre Dame, Paris
Jean-François Raffaëlli
(French, 1850–1924)
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.)
Credit LineThe Henry C. and Martha B. Angell Collection
Accession number19.108
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
Raffaëlli began his career as a history painter but was soon converted to the "new school" of painting by Degas, Manet, and their friends, whose weekly meetings at the Café Guerbois Raffaëlli attended. His paintings, like this one of the square in front of Notre Dame cathedral, are most often street scenes filled with ordinary Parisians going about their lives. Raffaëlli showed his work in the Impressionist group exhibitions of 1880 and 1881, winning the admiration of critics—and the envy of Monet and Renoir, today far more renowned than he.
InscriptionsLower right: JFR A FF A E LLIProvenanceNovember 5, 1891, sold by the artist to Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris and New York (stock no. 23653); February 19, 1895, sold by Boussod, Valadon et Cie. to Henry Clay Angell (b. 1829 - d. 1911), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, by inheritance to his widow, Martha Bartlett Angell (b. 1833 - d. 1919), Boston; 1919, gift of Martha B. Angell to the MFA [see note 1]. (Accession Date: March 20, 1919)NOTES:
[1] As "Notre Dame." See Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records, PI Record nos. G-35232 and G-33921 (stock book 13, no. 23653, p. 185 and stock book 14, no. 23653, p. 59). [2] Mrs. Angell first lent the painting to the MFA in 1915.
