Museum of Modern Art MuMa Le Havre
"Sister of Charity" Gustave Dore When the Second Empire collapsed in 1870 after the defeat at Sedan, France found itself in dire straits: the Prussians were at the gates of Paris, the Commune erupted, and its repression was bloody. Paris resembled a field of ruins, a fact revealed in the exhibition through the paintings of Siebe Johannes Ten Cate ( The Cour du Carrousel and the Ruins of the Tuileries ) and Isidore Pils ( Ruins of the Salon de Mars, Palace of Saint-Cloud ). Death and desolation mark Meissonnier's vision of the Siege of Paris and Gustave Doré's somber vision of a Sister of Charity saving a child in a sad and deserted Paris: an episode from the Siege of Paris in 1870. In short, life was not good for painters in Paris, and many chose exile. A diverse French community, both in terms of style and reasons for exile, formed in the British capital. Jean-Victor SCHNETZ (1787-1870) ou Théodore GÉRICAULT (1791-1824) The Old Italian Woman oil on canvas 62.3 x 50 c...