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Curatorial RemarksNote
This stereograph view bears similarity to a series of photographs called "Desastres de la guerre" by photographer J. Andrieu. Andrieu (as well as other photographers) documented the architectural ruins in Paris left after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the Paris Commune of 1871.
The destruction of the Hotel de Ville is described in an 1871 New York Times article by an unknown correspondent: ".. I have got into the quarter of the Hotel de Ville. For that building there is, I think, no restoration possible; yet it will be a misfortune if the shell should be pulled down... for the ruin has a strange beauty of its own. Standing beneath it you can see the dark blue sky through all its doors and windows; while the shattered walls, the broken roofs and pinnacles and arches have grouped themselves gracefully in their ruin. The statues in the niches on the front facade are almost uninjured; but how long the walls will stand seems to be very doubtful... All around the Hotel de Ville the havoc wrought is terrible."
(New York Times, June 16, 1871, p. 2) [Jessa J. Krick, 1/14/2010]Note Type
StorageNoteNote
Home Location: Historic Hudson Valley, Montgomery Place, Centennial BedroomNote Type
DepartmentNote
Curatorial