In 1892, the year of this painting, Paris was the most magnificent city in the world, epitomised by wide streets and long tree lined vistas, such as La Rue Royale. The year before, the first metro station in Paris had been opened, and, within eight years, The first automobiles made their appearance on the streets, spelling the end for the horse-drawn vehicles of this picture.

The transformation of Paris began in 1851 when Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor and Baron Haussmann started massive town-planning schemes, replacing the dirty narrow streets of medievil Paris with a network of well ordered, airy avenues and boulevards; in fact creating a new metropolis for the Third Republic.

This grand street, connecting two important squares, La Madeleine and Place de la Concorde, was, and still is, lined with luxury shops such as Christofle and great restaurants such as Maxim's and Fauchons. There is an air of quiet opulence about it. Several famous people lived here; at the end of the eighteenth century the writer Madame de Stael lived at No.6 and the architect, gabriel, at No.8, both in the long terrace on the left. Marie Antoinette, kept a secret aprartment at No.2 until her execution in 1793 in the place de la Revolution, visible at the end of the street. By this time, it had been renamed Place de la Concorde by chastened Revolutionaries, and had been enhanced by the erection of the 3,200 year old obelisk from Luxor in Egypt, (A partner to Cleopatra's Needle by the River Thames in London). Here it rises in the background as a significant landmark. Nowadays it has become the culminating point of triumphal parades down the Champs-Elysees each Bastille Day (14th July).

Here is a fascinating snapshot of Paris in its heyday, showing most signigicantly, a variety of horse-drawn vehicles - including a humble dust cart on the right, a hansom cab, an omnibus and an elegant two-horse carriage, its finely dressed female occupant momentarily distracted by the passing of a young lady in a red dress, conveyed in a sleek black carriage with red wheels, skilfully painted as if they really are revolving.

The people in this painting were enjoying the last decade of an era, when the main street noise was the sound of snorting horses and trotting hooves. The incessant throb of the internal combustion engine would not be far away.