Gezicht op de Champs-Elysées in Parijs 1828

Andréas Pic created this print, "View of the Champs-Élysées in Paris," in the first half of the 19th century. It captures the famous avenue during a period of significant social and political transformation. The Champs-Élysées was not merely a street; it was a stage upon which class distinctions played out. The bourgeoisie, those who benefited most from the transformations in French society after the revolution, strolled and promenaded to see and be seen. Carriages and horses are a potent reminder of wealth and status. The print invites us to consider the relationship between urban space and social identity. Who had access to this space, and what did it mean to occupy it? Pic’s work, while seemingly a straightforward depiction of a Parisian scene, subtly engages with the themes of social stratification and the performance of identity in the modern city. It reminds us that even in a space as public as the Champs-Élysées, not everyone experienced it in the same way.