Image: Édouard Manet, The Rue Mosnier with Flags, 1878

Description: To commemorate the recent Exposition Universelle, itself a celebration of luxury and prosperity, the French government declared June 30, 1878, a national holiday. The holiday, called the Fête de la Paix (Celebration of Peace), also marked France's recovery from the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the bloody, divisive Paris Commune that followed. From his second-floor window, Édouard Manet captured the holiday afternoon with his most precise, staccato brushwork in a patriotic harmony of the reds, whites, and blues of the French flag that waves from the new buildings' windows. The urban street was a principal subject of Impressionist and Modernist painting; many artists aimed to show not only the transformation and growth of the Industrial Age but how it also affected society. Manet's eyes saw both elegant passengers in hansom cabs and, in the foreground, a worker carrying a ladder. The hunched amputee on crutches, perhaps a war veteran or beggar, passes by fenced-in debris left from the construction of a new train track. Manet's sensitivity to the associated costs and sacrifices tempered his optimistic view of national pride and newfound prosperity.
Title: English: The Rue Mosnier with Flags
Credit: The Getty Center, Object 946 This image was taken from the Getty Research Institute's Open Content Program, which states the following regarding their assessment that no known copyright restrictions exist: Open content images are digital surrogates of works of art that are in the Getty's collections and in the public domain, for which we hold all rights, or for which we are not aware of any rights restrictions. While the Getty Research Institute cannot make an absolute statement on the copyright status of a given image, "Open content images can be used for any purpose without first seeking permission from the Getty." More information can be found at http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html.No known copyright restrictionsNo restrictionshttp://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.htmlfalse
Author: Édouard Manet
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No