Béraud was known for dashing about Paris in a specially outfitted carriage that allowed him to sketch the city’s crowds on the fly. Here, he depicts the lively traffic on the Pont des Arts, a footbridge spanning the Seine between the Institut de France and the Cour Carrée of the Louvre. A gust of wind leaves dignified gentlemen clutching their top hats and friskily lifts the skirts of a chic young woman, revealing a naughty glimpse of petticoat. Such wittily observed slice-of-life scenes were Béraud’s trademark.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:A Windy Day on the Pont des Arts
Artist:Jean Béraud (French, St. Petersburg 1849–1936 Paris)
Date:ca. 1880–81
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:15 5/8 x 22 1/4 in. (39.7 x 56.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Eda K. Loeb, 1951
Object Number:52.48.1
Inscription: Signed and inscribed: (lower right) JeanBéraud.; (center) FETE / DE SEVRES / . . .
Solomon Loeb, New York (in 1895); his daughter-in-law, Eda K. Loeb, New York (until d. 1951)
New York. Madison Square Garden. "Fair in Aid of Educational Alliance and Hebrew Technical Institute," December 1895, no. 39 (as "A Windy Day," lent by Solomon Loeb, Esq.).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity," February 26–May 7, 2013, not in catalogue.
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 8.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, pp. 216–17, ill., date it about 1880–81, based on the dress of the pedestrians; note that the Pont des Arts leads from the Institut de France to the Cour Carré of the Louvre and mention that the poster at the entrance to the bridge announces a public fair in the suburb of Sèvres.
John Milner. The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late Nineteenth Century. New Haven, 1988, p. 7, colorpl. 8.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 493, ill.
Patrick Offenstadt. Jean Béraud, 1849–1935, The Belle Époque: A Dream of Times Gone By: Catalogue raisonné. Cologne, 1999, pp. 160–61, no. 168, ill. (color), catalogues an earlier version of this composition (private collection; no. 168bis), as well as two other paintings depicting the Pont des Arts: "Pretty Artist, Pont des Arts" (private collection; no. 166) and "Quai de la Seine, near the Pont des Arts" (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; no. 167).
Caroline Igra. "Monuments to Prior Glory: The Foreign Perspective on Post-Commune Paris." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 62 (1999), p. 519, fig. 8, comments that this painting "illustrates how an artist could incorporate significant monuments within his images without endowing them with... heavy-handed symbolic significance".
Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Ed. Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Chicago, 2012, p. 294, ill. (color) [not in French ed.].
There is an earlier version of this composition in a private collection (Offenstadt 1999, no. 168bis), as well as two other paintings by Béraud depicting the Pont des Arts: Pretty Artist, Pont des Arts (private collection; Offenstadt no. 166) and Quai de la Seine, near the Pont des Arts (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; Offenstadt no. 167).
Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence)
late 1880s
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
