Strut Your Paris Knowledge, and Win a Free Paris Muse Tour

The city has changed quite a bit since the 1640s, when Eustache Le Sueur (aka "The French Raphael") painted his Plan of the Charterhouse of Paris. For starters, the Carthusian monastery for which it was created —called a Charterhouse in English—no longer exists. But in Le Sueur’s silvery vision of the Seine, we see several Paris landmarks that have survived. The Louvre, shown on the left side of the detail above, still dominates the Right Bank of the river, although in Le Sueur’s day it retained more vestiges of its medieval past.

Most Parisophiles will also recognize the stone arcades of Pont Neuf, the city’s oldest bridge. Further in the distance, Le Sueur has painstakingly rendered other durable structures that have also stood the test of time. We invite our Quoi de Neuf? subscribers to do what we encourage visitors to do everyday in the museums—look very closely at this painting!

The first subscriber to correctly identify four (4) other landmarks in the painting still standing today will win a complimentary Louvre tour for two people (subject to guide availability).

For the diehard Paris history buffs, we also extend this bonus question: today, you can stand on either the Pont Carrousel or the Pont des Arts to recreate Le Sueur’s view. Given the date of the painting (1645-48) however, what bridge might have the artist have used?

Email us at info@parismuse.comwith your answers before February 14. The winner will be announced in our next newsletter.

Learn more about this painting by reserving our new "History of Paris in Paintings at the Louvre" tour.

Read more about all of our "Closer Look" Louvre tours.

Eustache Le Sueur, Plan de la chartreuse de Paris porté par deux anges (1645 – 1648) is located in the Musée du Louvre. Sully, Second Floor, Gallery 24.

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