Watch a video that illuminates the dramatic transformation of Paris during the Second Empire (1852–70) into a city of tree-lined boulevards, parks, and neighborhood squares. This vast urban renewal initiative increased public green space a hundredfold, grounding both horticultural and artistic innovation.
 
Featuring a map of the renovated capital and engravings from:
Adolphe Alphand, Les Promenades de Paris (Paris: 1868–73). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Watson Library, Gift in Memory of David W. Langton, 1911
 
Produced in association with Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence, on view at The Met Fifth Avenue March 12 through July 29, 2018.

Transcript:
For centuries, the grandest green spaces in and around Paris were royal enclaves such as the magnificent formal gardens of the palace at Versailles and the sprawling Forest of Fontainebleau. This was echoed by the royal hunting grounds flanking the city and the majestic gardens of urban palaces. After the French Revolution (1789), these places of privilege were opened for the enjoyment of all.

The nineteenth century became the great era of public parks. Under Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1852–70), Paris was modernized. Baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine, remapped the city around a network of broad, tree-lined boulevards, parks, and squares. Adolphe Alphand, head of the new Department of Promenades and Plantations, oversaw the development of public parks.

Four parks were planned, one for each of the cardinal points of Paris. The first two, to the west and east, were described as the “lungs of Paris,” breathing fresh air into the cramped, polluted city. In the north and south, new parks provided working-class populations with access to green space. Older parks were renovated. More than 600,000 trees were planted in the parks and along boulevards, such as the grand Champs-Elysées. With the addition of some twenty squares, every citizen could live within ten minutes of a patch of greenery. 

By 1870, public green space in Paris had expanded from 47 acres to 4500 enriched by the installation of more than 2300 varieties of herbaceous plants. This green movement grounded artistic innovation within the city, in its newly developed suburbs, and farther afield.

#ParksandGardens

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The exhibition is made possible by the Sam and Janet Salz Trust, the Janice H. Levin Fund, and The Florence Gould Foundation.

The catalogue is made possible by the Janice H. Levin Fund and the Doris Duke Fund for Publications.


Credits:
Director: Kate Farrell
Producer: Melissa Bell
Animator/Editor: Bryan Martin
Writers Susan Stein: and Laura Corey


© 2018 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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