Louis Nicolas de Lespinasse

Louis Nicolas de Lespinasse
(1734–1808)

View of Two Banks of the Seine, Paris

Pen and brown ink and watercolor, heightened with white, over preliminary drawing in graphite; fine ruled border in pen and black ink
12 7/8 x 24 13/16 inches (326 x 630 mm)

Purchased on the Lois and Walter C. Baker Fund

1994.17
Item description: 

Lespinasse, whose precision and finesse as a topographical draftsman were virtually unmatched in eighteenth-century France, was at the height of his ability when he made this view of Paris overlooking the Pont Notre-Dame with the Pont Marie in the background. The bell tower of the Hôtel de Ville and the towers of the churches Saint-Jean en Grève and Saint-Gervais appear on the left side of the drawing. On the right is the Ile de la Cité with one of the towers of Notre-Dame just visible.