Paris, vu des hauteurs du Père Lachaise
A wide panorama of Paris seen from the hill of Père-Lachaise cemetery — a view still open from the cemetery's upper walks.
Paris
A standpoint is recorded for this painting, but it has not been independently confirmed against a museum or scholarly source, so treat it as approximate.
Paris, vu des hauteurs du Père Lachaise — at a glance
- Artist
- Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont (1790–1870)
- Year
- c. 1842–1859
- Movement
- French landscape (Valenciennes tradition)
- Place
- Père-Lachaise cemetery, Paris 20e
- Viewpoint
- The high ground of the cemetery, looking west over Paris — cemetery unchanged; skyline changed
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Now at
- Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
Overview
This is a panoramic townscape by Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, a French landscape painter and a pupil of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. Painted between about 1842 and 1859, it looks out over Paris from the raised ground of the Père-Lachaise cemetery in the east of the city. It is oil on canvas and hangs in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse.
The gift to Toulouse
Sarazin de Belmont gave the painting to the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse in 1859, in memory of Augustine Dufresne, the widow of the painter Antoine-Jean Gros.
Where was Paris, vu des hauteurs du Père Lachaise painted?
Museum interpretation Père-Lachaise, opened in 1804, occupies a hill in the 20th arrondissement, and its upper walks give a broad view westward across Paris. Sarazin de Belmont painted from that high ground, with tombs and cypresses in the foreground and the city — its domes and towers — spread out beyond. The cemetery is unchanged and open to the public, and a comparable panorama of Paris can still be had from its upper paths, though the modern skyline is very different.
What is in the painting?
The foreground is the terraced cemetery — funerary monuments, chapels, dark cypresses and figures on the paths. Beyond, the roofs of Paris recede into a soft haze, with the recognisable landmarks of the 1840s city picked out. A wide, luminous sky fills the top of the canvas.
Look closely
The cemetery foreground
Funerary chapels, monuments and dark cypresses fill the terraced near ground, with figures on the paths.
The roofs of Paris
The 1840s city recedes into haze beyond, its domes and towers picked out.
The wide sky
A soft, luminous sky takes up the top of the canvas, in the manner of the Valenciennes school of landscape study.
History & provenance
The painting has been in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, since the artist's gift of 1859.
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Sources
- Musée des Augustins, Toulouse — collection entry for Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, ‘Paris vu des hauteurs du Père-Lachaise’ (gift of the artist, 1859)
- Ville de Paris — cimetière du Père-Lachaise (opened 1804)
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