Passage Saint-Guillaume vers la rue Richelieu
Charles Marville French
Not on view
Trained as a painter and an illustrator, Charles Marville began working with the camera in 1851. In 1862 he was named "photographer of the city of Paris" and charged with documenting Baron Haussmann’s vast program of demolition and construction (new boulevards, parks, and public works) for Emperor Napoleon III. Although he also photographed the modern city that replaced old Paris, Marville is best known for his evocative photographs of the picturesque and insalubrious districts slated for destruction. The elegant buildings that line this charming passage, or covered street, in the second arrondissement were built in 1780; they were demolished in 1866 to make room for the Théâtre Francais and the future Avenue de l’Opéra.
