"My" View From the Notre Dame

Before reading this article, I never realized the history and intentions behind the paintings of artists like van Gogh and Manet. I thought that art was created purely from the imagination or used as a creative outlet. But now I see that art has a voice that portrays the political and social views of important events. Some of the paintings discussed in this article used scenes of the banlieue to portray the destruction of Paris' natural beauty and the line between Haussmanization and the old Paris. The paintings by van Gogh certainly displayed the sad and gloomy state of Haussmanization through the details of dull colors and blurred textures. Clark does a good job of analyzing the paintings in the article, but I wonder if he's looking much further than what should be taken at face value.

I really liked the character Genevoix from the playwright, Maison neuve. His character goes along well with Goncourts' idea of Paris and how its morality is changing. Haussmann has created a city that is restricted from natural spontanaeity to perfectly straight lines. Although people like Haussmann and Claire find the new city pretty, Genevoix makes a good point that he thinks "it fortunate that God himself was ignorant of this marvellous municipal system, and did not choose to arrange the trees in the forest in rows... withall the stars above in two straight lines" (42). This article explains that the era of Haussmann was where there was a clear distinction between the wealthy and the poor through the geography of their position in Paris.