Place de la Concorde c. 1895

Curator: This is Pierre-Georges Jeanniot’s "Place de la Concorde," held here at the Harvard Art Museums. The work is roughly 30 by 38 centimeters. Editor: It feels like a fleeting sketch—a memory caught in ink. The obelisk and fountain are powerful symbols, but almost dissolving into the atmosphere. Curator: Jeanniot's loose handling of ink and paper creates a sense of immediacy. Consider how readily available images of Paris were becoming, and how this evokes a sense of quickly captured modernity. Editor: Yes, and look at how the fountain, though solid in form, seems to be a crucible of rebirth and reflection given the place's revolutionary history. The material simplicity belies the symbolic weight. Curator: Exactly. It is a testament to Jeanniot's awareness of the commodification of Parisian imagery, rendered with a knowing hand, fully integrated in this consumerist landscape. Editor: It makes me rethink how we consume images, then and now. It's more than just a location; it's a symbol reshaped by history and art.