L'Artiste: a spectacular print's collection from the best drawners and engravers...

I choose today to present you a lithograph from the journal of litterature and fine arts "L'artiste".

L'artiste was published from 1831 to 1904, an assemblied all kind of articles about litterature, fine arts, architecture of this period. Each number of the journal was illustrated with one or two lithographs or prints from the best artists of this period. Great writers as Chateaubriand participated with poems, texts, stories...

This lithograph, shows us the pumbs on Notre Dame Bridge, in Paris.

Pumb on Notre Dame Bridge, in Paris
Lithograph signed by Victor LEFRANC (1812-?), c1836.

Paris has always lacked water in the past. In 1670, Daniel Jolly, director of the Samaritan pump, proposed to the municipal body established near the Pont Notre-Dame, a device similar to the one whose administration was entrusted to him, offering to raise at a price 20,000 pounds, 30 to 40 inches of water from the Seine at 80 feet above the level of this river. About 400 liters per minute. His proposal was accepted by order of April 26, 1671.
A similar project was submitted at the same time the board by Jacques Demance proposing for a sum of 40,000 francs to raise 55 inches of water using a new hydraulic machine. His offers were received with equal favor.
The two engineers set to work simultaneously. The result of their work was to deliver consumer Paris an additional volume of 80 inches of water. The pumps, placed on a scaffold were confined in a house whose door, designed by Pierre Bullet, especially attracted the attention of artists and scholars. This is decorated with two bas-reliefs, a masterpiece of Jean Goujon, and debris of a building earlier was beneath a medallion of Louis XV an inscription in Latin verse of the famous Santeuil. It was translated into French by P. Corneille.
These pumps repaired at various times including in 1678, 1708 and 1795. The first pump stopped working in 1786. The second, adopted in 1858 was demolished in 1861.

You can come to visit my e-store where I sell some original antique maps and prints: http://stores.ebay.com.au/moncabinetdestampes