The Luxembourg Gardens, Paris
A bright afternoon in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris — strollers under the chestnuts, the palace beyond — painted by a Finn abroad.
Jardin du Luxembourg
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
The Luxembourg Gardens, Paris — at a glance
- Artist
- Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905)
- Year
- 1887
- Movement
- Naturalism / Impressionist-influenced
- Place
- Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris 6e
- Viewpoint
- A tree-lined walk in the gardens — layout, palace and walks all survive
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Now at
- Ateneum (Finnish National Gallery), Helsinki
Overview
The Luxembourg Gardens is one of the Paris pictures by Albert Edelfelt, the leading Finnish painter of his generation, who trained and worked in the French capital. Painted in 1887, it shows the Jardin du Luxembourg on a fine day: gravel walks and lawns under tall trees, chairs and strollers in summer dress, nursemaids and children, and the roofs of the Luxembourg Palace among the greenery. It is oil on canvas and hangs in the Ateneum, the Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki.
Where was The Luxembourg Gardens, Paris painted?
Scholarship The Jardin du Luxembourg, on the Left Bank in the sixth arrondissement, is the garden of the former royal palace (now the French Senate). Laid out in the seventeenth century and much used by students, families and artists, it was close to the studios where Edelfelt worked. The gardens, their layout, the palace, the tree-lined walks and the characteristic green metal chairs are all still there and heavily used; the view can be broadly matched, allowing for changes in planting.
What is in the painting?
A broad sunlit walk runs through the garden, dappled by the shade of chestnut trees. Well-dressed Parisians sit on chairs and benches or stroll; a nurse with children is in the foreground. Flowerbeds and balustrades edge the path; through the trees at the back, the pale stone and slate roofs of the Luxembourg Palace. The light is warm and broken, the colour high.
Look closely
The dappled walk
A broad gravel path runs back through the garden, broken by the shade of chestnut trees.
The palace roofs
The pale stone and slate of the Luxembourg Palace show through the trees at the back — now the French Senate.
The strollers and chairs
Well-dressed Parisians sit on the park's chairs and benches or walk the path; a nurse with children is in front.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A receding garden walk under trees, with figures scattered along it and the palace glimpsed beyond.
Scholarship Edelfelt uses the walk to lead the eye back to the palace, and fills it with quickly noted figures in dappled light — an Impressionist-influenced treatment of the fashionable Paris park, painted with a firmer drawing than his French contemporaries.
History & provenance
The painting is in the Ateneum (Finnish National Gallery), Helsinki.
Sources
- Ateneum / Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki — collection entry for Albert Edelfelt, ‘The Luxembourg Gardens, Paris’ (1887)
- Sénat / Ville de Paris — the Jardin du Luxembourg
Related paintings
La Place des Pyramides, Paris (I)
1875
De Nittis's bright Paris square of 1875 — another visitor's exact record of a public space in the city.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
1884
Seurat's park crowd of 1884–86 — Parisians at leisure under trees.
Bal du moulin de la Galette
1876
Renoir's dappled-light Montmartre crowd of 1876.