Palais d'Orsay and Legion d'Honneur, Paris, Lithograph after Benoist, circa 1845

A tinted lithograph of the Palais d'Orsay on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, a vast, regular palace of three stories seen at an angle, its long arcaded facades lined with tall arched windows and balconies. A railing fronts the building, and in the distance at right appears the domed rotunda of the Palace of the Legion of Honor among trees.

The foreground is a broad cobbled quay with blocks of cut stone at left, where a boy stands beside a bundle. Gentlemen in top hats and tailcoats stroll and talk, ladies walk with a small dog, a man sits on a stone block with his dog at his feet, and a carriage passes along the far side of the street under a cloudy sky.

The Palais d'Orsay, completed in the first half of the nineteenth century, housed the Council of State and the Court of Audit until it was burned during the Commune in 1871; its site was later used for the Orsay railway station, today the Musee d'Orsay. The neighboring Hotel de Salm has been the seat of the Legion of Honor since Napoleon's time. The sheet is lettered "Paris" above and "VUES DES PALAIS D'ORÇAY ET DE LA LÉGION D'HONNEUR" below, numbered 23, after a drawing by Philippe Benoist, printed by Auguste Bry and published by Gihaut Frères, Boulevard des Italiens.

The technique is lithography with a buff tint stone, highlights left in white, and crisp architectural line work. A ruled double border frames the image.

A view of a vanished Paris landmark, it would make a thoughtful gift for a lover of the Musee d'Orsay, and would hang well in a home office or a reading room in a narrow black frame.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.