High Museum presents “In the City of Light: Paris, 1850-1920”

From September 1 to December 1, 2023, the High Museum of Art presents an exhibition focusing on the architecture, people and culture of the French capital during the latter half of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

Source: High Museum of Art · Image: Félix Hilaire Buhot (French, 1847–1898), Winter in Paris (L’Hiver à Paris), 1879. High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

By artists such as Théophile Steinlen, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Honoré Daumier, Édouard Vuillard and others, the works on view will explore Parisian life through their subjective lenses, comprising a kaleidoscope of impressions featuring the luxuries and hardships of city life, both public and private. Organized by the High and including approximately 60 works of art from the Museum’s rich holdings and significant loans from local private collections, the exhibition will be on view from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31.

“This exhibition will give visitors an intimate look at Parisian life from the perspectives of some of the city’s most well-known artists, and it features incredible works drawn from our strong collections of European works on paper and documentary photography,” said Rand Suffolk, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director. “We are also thankful for the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Michael Schlossberg and Dr. and Mrs. Robert Gaynes, whose loans to the exhibition include rarely seen works.”

As they immortalized the sights of Notre Dame, dancers at the Folies Bergère and the promenading bourgeoisie on the boulevards, the artists featured in the exhibition also captured bustling street markets, absinthe drinkers in cafés, and the pursuits of beggars, buskers and people at work. To reflect these core aspects of everyday life in Paris, the exhibition will be organized around four themes: familiar architectural landmarks, busy street life throughout the city, Parisian “types” and celebrities, and spectacles and entertainments. Each section of the exhibition will feature works in a variety of media, from prints and drawings to photographs and sculpture.

Exhibition curator Claudia Einecke said, “For me, the special appeal of this exhibition lies in the great kaleidoscopic variety of places, activities and people it offers to the viewer. Each urban view, each lively scene, provides a historical, social or psychological insight into the great city of Paris—the City of Light—as it was one-hundred-plus years ago and as it, on some levels, still is.”