The Ambivalent Picturesque of the Paris Commune Ruins

Abstract

Notes that references to “picturesque ruins” and scenes frequently appear in accounts describing the condition of Paris in 1871 in the aftermath of the civil conflict known as the Commune. Although ruins have often evoked poignancy for the way they trace the passage of time, the picturesque in this context frames the image of the devastated capital in a way that strips these ruined spaces of their immediate political resonance. Asserts the conservative recourse to the picturesque aesthetic is primarily ideological and not aesthetic in motivation, encouraging one to forget the violence that produced the ruins and the brutal reprisals against the Communards, while drowning itself in scenic pleasures and furthering the image of Paris as one of the great ruined capitals of history.