Images of the Seine

Renoir: "The Luncheon of the Boating Party" (Déjeuner des Canotiers). 

Renoir's famous friends drinking wine at a popular outdoor restaurant “La Maison Fournaise,” after boating on the Seine.

Sciolino points out that the restaurant still exists: you could eat on this terrace near the river!

As I read Elaine Sciolino's book The Seine, The River That Made Paris, I've been enjoying photos and images that she mentioned. The book includes a number of photos, but many of her chapters refer to other scenes as well, and I found some of them online. It's a very visual book!

The first photo below was taken during my most recent visit to Paris, a few short months before the April, 2019 fire that destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral. Sciolino points out that firefighters relied on water pumped from the Seine to fight the fire, and prevent even more destruction!

After that, I've included several historical photos, art works, and other images that were discussed in the book. I'm using Sciolino's text as a source of ideas for finding images; I’m not writing a real review.

A view of the Seine, November, 2018.

Historic Photos of the Seine

Emile Zola's hobby was photography: here is his view of the Seine around 1900.

Quai des Grands Augustins by Eugene Atget, 1920

Charles Nègre, 1855. Quai D'Anjou. Nègre is one of the earliest photographers of the city.

Charles Nègre, 1855. Construction of the bridge d'Arcole.

After describing the Seine as it flows through Paris, Sciolino continues towards the mouth of the river.
As shown here, Rouen, also on the Seine, was badly bombed during World War II,  especially the bridges. (source)

Bouquinistes and Bathers Along the River in Paris, 21st Century

"The BOUQUINISTES are the literary gatekeepers of Paris."
(Photo from Elaine Sciolino, The Seine: The River that Made Paris, p. 201).

“Bathers sunning themselves on the Right Bank of the Seine near the Pont de Sully and the Île Saint-Louis” (The Seine, p. 11)

At the mouth of the river

We paid a very brief visit to this small and picturesque seaport in 1976. The Seine here rises and falls with the tides: evidently we were there at low tide.

Inspector Maigret: Always Near the River

More Images of the Seine

Visiting Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" 
at the Chicago Art Institute, 2017. La Grande Jatte is an island in the Seine.

Claude Monet: The Break-up of the Ice on the Seine, 1880. Monet painted the river very often.
This painting is very familiar to me because it belongs to the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

The Louvre beside the Seine, long before the elaborate creation of stone riverbanks. 
From the "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry," 1412-1416.

Paris in 1553: a map by Olivier Truschet and Germain Hoyau. (Wikipedia)

The Seine in Paris in the seventeenth century. (Wikipedia)

Blog post and original photos © 1976, 2018, 2023 mae sander