Underground quarries of Paris

Cazaban

Oil on canvas 60 X 73 cm, accidents well restored in a sober golden baguette of the period 68 X 82 cm.

This incredible and fascinating work, painted around 1860, tells the story of underground Paris. Some 300 km of galleries were dug during the centuries under Paris, linking natural caves and underground quarries, extracted stones used to build churches, monuments …
Whole districts threatening to collapse, it was necessary to consolidate this network from Louis XVI by pharaonic work that continued until today, rebuilding an underground Paris mirror that of the surface, supplemented since by the network of sewers and that of the metro.
Here, the workers deliver blocks, evacuate rubble under the direction of the counter-masters, the immense pillars of retaining now the sky of the quarry.
Signed lower right L. Cazaban. There is indeed a Louis-Joseph Cazaban, painter Carcassonne, but dates after the creation of this painting, maybe it is the work of his father ?
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