Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Armand Guillaumin

The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame

ca. 1880
Oil on canvas.
54 x 65 cm
Carmen Thyssen Collection
Inv. no. (
CTB.1994.12
)
Room D
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others

The Archbishop's palace, which rose on the river bank near the cathedral, was destroyed in 1831. Only the bridge kept its name. Formed by three stone arches, it was opened in 1828, the day of the feast of Charles X. This bridge had the characteristic of opening onto the entrance to the Morgue, transferred in 1864 to its north end, where it remained until 1923. The bodies of those who had died in prison, in the street, or had drowned, were taken there.

Guillaumin had occupied, Daubigny's former studio, at 13 Quai d'Anjou, on the Ile Saint Louis. From there, he painted the banks of the Seine, the bridges of the Ile de la Cité, and various oils representing the cathedral of Notre Dame.

At the end of 1869, Guillaumin had obtained a hard night job at the Paris City Council, which meant he had three days to paint. In 1903 he recalled those years: «for ten years I led the life of a convict, spending three nights a week at the service of the Paris City Council, while still working during the day». He would set off with just one black coffee to warm him up, his paints and one or two canvases.

On 2 July 1876, he told Dr Gachet: «As from next Monday and for the next four weeks, you will find me here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you should come next Monday, old Cézanne told me he will drop by around 6 o'clock to see my mother and he will have dinner with us».

Cézanne and Guillaumin used to work together at the Parc d´Issy and at Chatillon. Some of the works painted then undoubtedly completed Guillaumin's contribution to the 1880 Salon.

Those were the years when the studio at 13 Quai d'Anjou was the scene of lively meetings, of discussions on the subject of painting and on the exhibitions to be prepared, of happy encounters, particularly with Pissarro and Cézanne, with doctor Gachet who welcomed them in Auvers and offered them the opportunity of discovering engraving, with Eugène Murer, his childhood friend from Moulins, to whom he introduced his friends, and whose little restaurant ensured that they got a proper meal during the days «in the galleys». At the 1880 Salon, Guillaumin presented 18 oils and a few pastels depicting the suburbs of Paris, Fontenay, Chatillon, the Port of Austerlitz close to which lived one of his brothers, whose address he had given to be included in the catalogue. Regarding the paintings of Paris, apart from the one representing the Pont-Marie, their titles do not seem to indicate that the Bridge of the Archbishop's Palace was depicted in any of them. Zola pointed out that Pissarro, Sisley and Guillaumin set out to render aspects of the nature around Paris in the true light, without the slightest unexpected colour effect (Le Voltaire, 19 June).

The painting from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection is constructed around a simple composition, based on the oblique line of the river bank leading to the background marked by the horizontal line of the bridge, the same importance being given to the sky as to the rest of the painting. The signature, a G with the large loop in which are included the letters «UI», is characteristic of the beginning of the 1880s.

Like Pissarro and Cézanne, in that period Guillaumin was interested in passers-by and people strolling along the banks. In the previous series he had preferred to represent the workers unloading the barges, those sifting sand and the little coal thieves.

It would be interesting to compare this painting with that of the Blot collection which shows a variation in size (60 x 81 cm), in the number and place of the characters and in a boat crossing the Seine; the artist placed his easel more to the left and further back with regard to the bridge. It seems that both paintings belong to the same period.

The composition is sober and dense, the brushstrokes are solid, rapid, overlapping different tones, which reduces the effect of transparency of the water and intensifies the impression of colour density; the sky is painted with nervous brushstrokes, combined with large rough sweeping strokes which convey the clouds racing by and the vagaries imposed on them by the wind.

Jacqueline Derbanne
 

19th Century19th Century - French paintingPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Products and publications

The Bridge of the Archbishop´s Palace and the Apse of Notre-Dame, Paris

The Bridge of the Archbishop´s Palace and the Apse of Notre-Dame, Paris

17.00 €

Watch Swatch+Thyssen van der Ast Gracious Bouquet

Watch Swatch+Thyssen van der Ast Gracious Bouquet

80.01 €

Hyperreal Pin stamp letter P

Hyperreal Pin stamp letter P

78.00 €

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue  V2 (Spanish)

Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Catalogue V2 (Spanish)

65.00 € 25.00 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

Armand Guillaumin
Armand Guillaumin
Saint-Palais-la-Pierrière. Low Tide
1893
Armand Guillaumin
Armand Guillaumin
The Road of Damiette
1885
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Wheatfield
1879
Claude Monet
Claude Monet
The Hut in Trouville, Low Tide
1881
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame, c. 1880
The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame
Armand Guillaumin

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación.

Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Coleccion Carmen Thyssen.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotografico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame, c. 1880
The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame
Armand Guillaumin

©

Carmen Thyssen Collection

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works of the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialised publications, you should contact the Photo Library by email at the e-mail: @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail: @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn
Bluesky

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Whistleblower channel
  • Use of images
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Environment, Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022