Street Builders (Les terrassiers)

The indefatigable Edgar Chahine might have had a brush in hand one day, an etching needle the next. Whatever the medium, his subject was invariably the same: Parisian life. After spending his childhood in Constantinople (now Istanbul) and his student years in Venice, Chahine arrived in Paris at age 21. He viewed the city with rapture. Along with the street workers captured here, his subjects included ragpickers, prostitutes, market scenes, street wrestlers, cabarets, cafés, women in their carriages, and prominent citizens. Mia has a large collection of Chahine’s etchings, which can be seen by appointment in the Herschel V. Jones Print Study Room.