Rue Royal Madeleine 

Antoine Blanchard captured Rue Royal Madeleine with oil, immortalizing a nostalgic vision of Paris. Born in 1910, Blanchard's artistic lens was shaped by a rapidly changing world, one still reverberating from two world wars. Blanchard painted Paris as it once was, or perhaps, as it was remembered. His paintings aren't just cityscapes, but also time capsules, evoking the elegance of a bygone era. It is tempting to indulge in the romanticism of Blanchard's Paris. However, we also see the echoes of class divisions inherent to the city at the time, glimpsed in the figures that populate his street scenes. While his paintings invite us to reflect on the past, they challenge us to consider whose stories are told and remembered, and whose are relegated to the margins of history. They allow us to see the social fabric of a city undergoing constant evolution, with layers of experience shaping its character.