The Rue Montorgueil, Celebration of 30 June 1878

The artwork

It is not Bastille Day: Monet painted this Paris street covered in flags on 30 June 1878, the day of the festival of peace and work, two years before 14 July became the national holiday. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The street full of French flags, the crowd below and the buildings on either side.
• Blue, white and red vibrating in a thousand small touches.
• A gift for anyone who loves Paris.

In 1878 Paris was hosting its third World's Fair, a great international exhibition that had opened a few weeks earlier and was meant to show the world a France back on its feet after the defeat by Prussia in 1870. The government decreed a festival of peace and work for 30 June, and the city filled with flags.

Monet did not go down among the people: he looked at the rue Montorgueil from a window. With a multitude of small coloured strokes he captured the movement of the crowd and the fluttering of the flags, almost like a reporter. He also painted a twin street, the rue Saint-Denis, which is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen.

A few days later, on 11 July, the picture was bought by Georges de Bellio, a doctor who collected the Impressionists' paintings. The original is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

In a hallway or a study it brings the cheer of a holiday in Paris. It is a gift for anyone who has lived in Paris, or who goes back whenever they can.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass