Ballooning over Paris – Louis Jules Arnout, 1846

BALLOON FLIGHT OVER PARIS

“Excursions aériennes. Paris en ballon. Vue prise du Pavillon Marsan (Château des Tuileries)” Lithograph by Louis Jules Arnout, published by Jeannin, Gambart, Junin & Co. in Paris, 1846. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 32.7 × 44.4 cm.

This fine lithograph shows Paris from the air, as if viewed above the Pavillon de Marsan of the Tuileries Palace. In the foreground lie the gardens of the Carrousel and the Tuileries, filled with numerous strolling Parisians. Beyond stretches the Place de la Concorde with the Luxor obelisk and the two fountains designed by Jacques Hittorff—the Fontaine des Fleuves and the Fontaine des Mers—installed between 1835 and 1840. Further towards the horizon the Champs-Élysées extend all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.

On the left, the Seine can be seen with the Pont de la Concorde, the Palais Bourbon, and, further on, the Hôtel des Invalides. To the right, the newly built Rue de Rivoli runs alongside the Tuileries gardens.

A striking detail is the balloon high in the sky: Arnout included in all his aerial views the very montgolfière from which he made his sketches. The print is thus not only a topographically accurate panorama of mid-19th-century Paris, but also a testimony to an innovative artistic method that was considered revolutionary at the time.

The Pavillon de Marsan, from which this view is situated, formed part of the Tuileries Palace. After the destruction of the palace in 1871, the pavilion was rebuilt and today forms part of the Louvre, housing the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Louis Jules Arnout (1814–1882), painter and lithographer, was a pupil of Jean Sébastien Rouillard. Like his contemporary Alfred Guesdon, he travelled through France and Europe in a balloon to draw accurate city views from a bird’s-eye perspective. His lithographs were praised for their “scrupulous accuracy” and “exquisite execution,” and enjoyed great popularity among a wide audience.

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