The Pont-Neuf over the Seine

Of the 845 artworks that Harry Drake left to Mia, 100 were prints and drawings by Auguste Lepère. This late work, published shortly after Lepère’s death, depicts some of Paris’s oldest sights. In the foreground, two steamy laundry boats are moored in front of The Louvre Museum. Today those boats would be an almost unimaginably gritty intrusion for the tourists who now swarm the area. Beyond is the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), which remains—as it was in Lepère’s time—the oldest bridge in Paris. The statue at one end, of a horse and rider, is a monument to Henri IV (1553–1610), a king celebrated for his efforts to improve the lives of his subjects.