A View of Place Louis XV (Main View (post-conservation))

The modern-day visitor to Paris would have difficulty recognizing this vista of what was then called Place Louis XV but is now Place de la Concorde. The painting was made before 1787, when construction began on the bridge that now crosses the river there. In the foreground, figures strolling along the left bank of the Seine have a clear view across the river of the grand, ceremonial space linking the Champs-Élysées, shown all the way on the left by a triumphal arch, with the Tuileries Gardens on the far right. In the center, two imposing buildings house government offices. In front of these buildings is a monumental bronze equestrian statue of Louis XV that was melted down for a cannon in 1792. As one of the great new public spaces in Paris in the 1700s, the Place de la Concorde was portrayed by many painters and engravers.