Galerie Paul Prouté

Adolphe Martial Potémont, better known in the 19th century as Martial, was born in Paris in 1827 and died there in 1883: he devoted the bulk and the finest part of his work to Paris. Although he occasionally painted, he was above all a skilled etcher. Among his vast body of work, the series of three hundred etchings entitled L’Ancien Paris stands out: it secured his fame as early as 1864. Whether architectural, anecdotal (Paris intime, 1874), social (Les Boulevards de Paris, 1877) or historical (Les Prussiens chez nous, Paris sous la Commune), his plates—often organised into series—all offer a picturesque view of Paris and preserve the memory of the city that Baron Haussmann was then radically transforming. At the beginning of L’Ancien Paris, we read: ‘Eminent writers will describe what our forefathers’ homes were like; they will speak of the buildings and streets whose names have survived; they will depict old Paris: these etchings show it.’ Potémont was a member of the Société des aquafortistes and the author of a Nouveau traité de la gravure à l’eau-forte pour les peintres et les dessinateurs.