La Place Victoire à Paris, Thomas Rowlandson, 1789

An arc of the symmetrical houses of the place des victoires (built by mansard in 1686) forms a background to an animated scene, the principal group being round the statue (burlesqued) of 'louis le grand'. A charming lady walks (right ot left) with her hand on the arm of a grim abbe, whose hands are in a muff. A two-wheeled chair is pulled by one man and pushed by two others; its occupant, a lean frenchman, looks up ecstatically at the statue. A stout english tourist wearing jack-boots and a lady in a riding-habit watch the scene, amused. Their mastiff looks threateningly at a slim greyhound. Beside them stands a bare-footed monk. In the middle distance (right) three monks, the leader holding a crucifix, file past a coach at the back of which four footmen stand, one behind the other; the occupants, a lady and gentleman, face each other in animated conversation. In the foreground (left), beside the overturned stool of a 'dècrotteur', a grotesque mannikin fiddles to a dancing dog. The towers and roof of notre dame are seen above the houses in the background, a topographical impossibility. November 1789 hand-coloured etching and aquatint. Date: 1789. Dimensions: Height: 420 mm; Width: 568 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. La Place Victoire à Paris (BM 1937,1018.1)