La Rue Tronchet Paris 

Curator: This is Antoine Blanchard's "La Rue Tronchet, Paris," an oil painting capturing a Parisian street scene. I love the moodiness! What strikes you first? Editor: It's definitely the wetness! That glistening street just pulls you in. There's a real chill to it, but then also flashes of color... like a city sighing. Is that La Madeleine in the distance? Curator: Yes, that monumental structure provides an anchor, a symbol of permanence against the ephemeral quality of the light and the bustling street life. Blanchard loved depicting Paris in different weather conditions, didn’t he? It’s almost like the city itself is the main subject, regardless of whatever’s in motion at its center. Editor: Exactly! The architecture is rigid and constant while life and light flows around and against it, which to me suggests memory... the memory of Paris itself. He seems to want to catch not just the image, but the *feeling* of it. Is the presence of horse-drawn carriages meant to recall the past, like he’s building the city’s memory? Curator: Possibly, and even in his time they might have carried some romantic, or at least antiquated, connotations. To me, the carriages act more like echoes of movement, as if we are meant to appreciate what has changed even as he points our vision back in time. I read these cityscapes, especially one’s capturing a gray atmosphere such as this one, to represent urban anxiety. But look how those bright adverts call to modern shoppers. Paris then and now, right there, just different manifestations. Editor: I agree completely, a testament to time, but what’s more potent is how he invites our curiosity, not unlike what one may feel standing along La Rue Tronchet. Well, that really shifts my understanding of Blanchard’s paintings... it makes it about more than simply light. Curator: It does for me too, after considering it through your lens of the symbols, images and ultimately memories conveyed. Now, when I look at it, I’m less aware of that anxiety I see there and, instead, feel the artist gently reassuring us of something beautiful. Editor: Yes, it's more like an invitation.