Street Scene in Paris

Frank Myers Boggs’s Street Scene in Paris shows a site in old Paris where shops selling spirits, tobacco, and antique furniture and bric-a-brac anchor a quiet corner passed by a few pedestrians and an omnibus moving out of the image at right. A street sweeper works his broom on the rough cobblestones as a woman, basket over her arm, crosses to the sidewalk. A toddler held on a man’s shoulder to delight in the antiquary’s offerings and two unaccompanied children approaching several men lounging at the wine shop further attest to the civility of ordinary Parisian neighborhood life. As is typical of Boggs’s street scenes, however, figures are subordinated to built structures.

Boggs painted this work in Paris early in his career, just as he was discovering the subjects that would become his hallmarks: city architecture, streets, and harbors. Along with Street Scene in New York (unlocated), he showed it in one of the first venues in which he exposed his art to the American public following his initial stay in France, the 1880 Annual Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The paintings’ parallel titles suggest that the artist viewed the two as companion works, possibly intended to contrast the two cities. In any case, this work emphasizes the image of Paris as quaintly old-fashioned. By 1878, many of the low, irregular structures like those presented here, remnants of medieval Paris, had been obliterated in the redevelopment carried out under the direction of Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

The painting’s rough brushwork, attention to the trivial incidents of everyday life, and casually cut-off action of the retreating omnibus may indicate Boggs’s awareness of the contemporary movement known as impressionism. By the 1880s, when he became personally acquainted with many of the movement’s leading artists, he had absorbed their paintings’ brighter color and attention to atmosphere. However, Street Scene in Paris relies on muted colors to portray a pre-modern Paris through its antiquated architecture. In this, it anticipates the intimate “portraits” of old London shop fronts created only a few years later by another American expatriate artist, James McNeill Whistler, of which the Terra Foundation’s collection includes several examples (TF 1992.146, TF 1992.147, TF 1992.148).

Fifty-first Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 5–May 30, 1880, no. 17.

American Artists and the French Experience, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

Selections from the Permanent Collection: American Artists in France, 1860–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 10–June 3, 2001.

Childe Hassam (1859–1935): TransAtlantic Impressions, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, February 16–April 28, 2002.

Paris-New York, aller-retour. Une Modernité américaine en formation, 1875–1940. Oeuvres des collections de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et des Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (Paris-New York, Roundtrip. American Modernism in the Making, 1875–1940. Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002. [exh. cat.]

The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940 (Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains 1840–1940)), Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 15–May 25, 2003; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 8–August 17, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]

Impressions: American Painters in France 1860–1935, Naples Museum of Art, Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida (organizer). Venue: Naples Museum of Art, Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, Florida, January 18–May 13, 2007. [exh. cat.]

Sotheby's, New York, New York (Sale 6568, May 25, 1994): lot 76. Ill. lot 76 (color).

Cartwright, Derrick R. The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 14, 23 (checklist); fig. 5, p. 14 (black & white).

Cartwright, Derrick R. Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1999. Text pp. 14, 23 (checklist); fig. 5, p. 14 (black & white).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 11, 27 (checklist); fig. 4, p. 11 (black & white).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains, 1840–1940. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2003. Text pp. 11, 27 (checklist); fig. 4, p. 11 (black & white).

Gerdts, William H. and David F. Setford. Impressions: Americans in France, 1860–1930 and Claude Monet: Giverny and the North of France. (exh. cat. Naples Museum of Art). Naples, Florida: Naples Museum of Art, 2007. Text pp. 11, 96 (checklist); ill. p. 31 (color).