Paul Albert Girard

PAUL-ALBERT GIRARD (1839-1920) LE PELOTON DES ÉTENDARDS DES CENT-GARDES REVENANT DE LA REVUE SUR LES CHAMPS-ELYSÉES Salon of 1869?From the collection of Emperor Napoleon III The most prestigious military unit of the last of the French Emperor on the world’s most sumptuous avenue
The standard-bearers of the Cent-Gardes returning from a military review on the Champs- Elysees Avenue Signed lower right Albert Girard?Oil on Canvas?265 x 417 cm?Exhibited at the Paris Salon, 1869, n°1043 A rare glimpse of the Champs-Elysees under the Second Empire, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background and, in the right foreground, the Marly Horses commissioned by King Louis XV from the sculptor Guillaume I Coustou. Depicted is the prestigious Cent-Gardes squadron returning down the Champs-Elysées under the admiring gaze of the Parisian onlookers. The Cent-Gardes Squadron, an elite cavalry corps established in 1854 by the Emperor Napoleon III and subsequently dissolved at the fall of the sovereign in 1870, was primarily responsible for protecting the person of the Emperor as well as providing security for the imperial family.

Provenance: - Acquired by the Emperor Napoleon III from the artist in 1869 (visible label confirming Emperor’s purchase on the back of the frame) -Returned to the Empress Eugénie in 1879? -Given by the Empress to Jean-Baptiste Franceschini-Pietri? -Collection Jean-Baptiste Franceschini-Pietri?-Inherited by Baciocchi, nephew of Jean-Baptiste Franceschini-Pietri, in 1924, Ile Rousse -Madame Arlette de Bachiocchi-Adonno?-Remained since with the descendants