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, Purchased on the Lois and Walter C. Baker Fund
, 1994.17
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.