Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, Paris

c. 1860s

Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, Paris, c. 1860s. Édouard Baldus (French, 1813–1889). Albumen print from collodion negative; image: 21.5 x 28.2 cm (8 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); paper: 21.5 x 28.2 cm (8 7/16 x 11 1/8 in.); mounted: 32.6 x 43.5 cm (12 13/16 x 17 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.16 The construction materials seen here in the foreground symbolize the fact that for three decades starting in 1854, Paris was a construction site as Baron Haussmann replaced the crooked streets and crumbling buildings of medieval Paris with a modern city. Its rational city plan featured broad avenues that radiated from key sites like the Arc de Triomphe. Completed in 1836, the Arc is dedicated to the armies of the French Revolution and the Second Empire and has gained additional symbolic force with each war fought by the French.