Editing Pont Neuf (section)

==As the centre of Paris==

[[File:Plan de Mérian 1615 Palais de la Cité.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The ''Pont Neuf'' in 1615, (Map of Paris by [[Matthäus Merian]])]]
[[File:Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, A View of Paris from the Pont Neuf - Getty Museum.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The ''Pont Neuf'' in 1763, by [[Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet]]]]
[[File:Auguste Renoir - Pont Neuf, Paris - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|350px|''[[Le Pont-Neuf (Renoir)|Le Pont-Neuf]]'', [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]]'s 1872 painting of Parisians crossing the bridge]]
Upon completion, Pont Neuf attracted throngs of visitors, many of whom used the bridge as a public square, conducting business, socializing, and taking in the view. One contemporary writer repeated a proverb about Pont Neuf to illustrate the variety of people who frequented the bridge, "one never crossed the Pont Neuf without meeting three things: a monk, a girl and a white horse."<ref name="whitney">Whitney 1929, pp. 137–141.</ref> 

All through the 18th century, the ''Pont Neuf'' was the center of Paris, lively with both crime and commerce: <blockquote>Czar Peter the Great, who came to study French civilization under the regency of the Duke d'Orleans, declared that he had found nothing more curious in Paris than the Pont Neuf; and, sixty years later, the philosopher Franklin wrote to his friends in America that he had not understood the Parisian character except in crossing the Pont Neuf.<ref>Lacroix 1858, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvRAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA337 p. 337].</ref></blockquote>

In 1862, [[Édouard Fournier]] traced its history in his lively two-volume ''Histoire du Pont-Neuf''.<ref>Fournier 1862, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w3jG6Xy1rHUC&pg=PR3 vol. 1] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=Urm2Cv1o_jYC&pg=PR9 vol. 2] at [[Google Books]].</ref> He describes how, even before it was completed (in 1607), gangs hid out in and around it, robbing and murdering people. It remained a dangerous place even as it became busier. For a long time, the bridge even had its own gallows.

This did not prevent people from congregating there, drawn by various stands and street performers (acrobats, fire-eaters, musicians, etc.). Charlatans and quacks of various sorts were also common, as well as the hustlers ([[shell game]] hucksters, etc.) and pickpockets often found in crowds – not to mention a lively trade in prostitution. Among the many businesses which, however, unofficially set up there, were several famous tooth pullers.

In 1701, Cotolendi quoted a letter supposedly written by a Sicilian tourist:

<blockquote>One finds on the Pont-Neuf an infinity of people who give tickets, some put fallen teeth back in, and others make crystal eyes; there are those who cure incurable illnesses; those who claim to have discovered the virtues of some powdered stones to white and to beautify the face. This one claims he makes old men young; there are those who remove wrinkles from the forehead and the eyes, who make wooden legs to repair the violence of bombs; finally everybody is so applied to work, so strongly and continually, that the devil can tempt no one but on Holidays and Sundays.<ref>Cotolendi 1701, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QN4TAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA292 p. 292].</ref></blockquote>

With its numerous sellers of pamphlets and satirical performers, it was also a center for social commentary:

<blockquote>In the 16th cent. the Pont-Neuf was the scene of the recitals of Tabarin, a famous satirist of the day, and it was long afterwards the favourite rendezvous of news-vendors, jugglers, showmen, loungers, and thieves. Any popular witticism in verse was long known as ''un Pont-Neuf''.<ref>Baedeker 1884, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cOkNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA208 p. 208].</ref></blockquote>

In the seventeenth century, that bridge of memories, the old ''Pont Neuf'' of Paris, was the rendezvous of quacksalvers and mountebanks. Booths for the sale of various articles lined the sides of the bridge. People flocked there to see the sights, laugh, chat, make love and enjoy life as only Parisians can. Students and ''grisettes'' of the [[Latin Quarter, Paris|''Quartier latin'']] elbowed ladies and gentlemen of the court. Bourgeois families came to study the flippant manners of the [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocrats]]. [[Poodle]] clippers plied their trade; jugglers amused the ''quid nuncs'' with feats of dexterity; traveling dentists pulled teeth and sold balsams; clowns tumbled; and last, but not least, pickpockets lifted purses and silk handkerchiefs with impunity. Says Augustus J. C. Hare (Walks in Paris): "So central an artery is the Pont Neuf, that it used to be a saying with the Parisian police, that if, after watching three days, they did not see a man cross the bridge, he must have left Paris."  One of the principal vendors of quack nostrums of the ''Pont Neuf'' was Montdor. He was aided by a buffoon named [[Tabarin]], who made facetious replies to questions asked by his master, accompanied with laughable grimaces and grotesque gestures. The modern ringmaster and clown of the circus have similar scenes together, minus the selling of medicines.<ref>Evans 1909, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YzouAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA342 p. 342].</ref>

[[File:Seine - Pont Neuf, Tour Eiffel, Vedettes de Paris et Institut de France.jpg|right|thumb|325px|The ''Pont Neuf'' with the [[Eiffel Tower]] and the ''[[Institut de France]]'' in the background. A ''[[bateau-mouche]]'' sails on the [[Seine]]]]

Under [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]], thieves and entertainers were joined by recruiters, or "sellers of human flesh", who did their best to lure newcomers to Paris and others "with as much violence as the sale of Negros in the Congo".<ref>Lacroix 1858, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvRAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA346 p. 346].</ref> Silversmiths and other luxury businesses nearby (which gave their name to the ''Quai des Orfèvres'') drew visitors as well.

One yearly event, held on the nearby ''[[Place Dauphine]]'', prefigured the ''[[Salon des Refusés]]'' which would give rise to the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]]. During the celebration of the [[Corpus Christi (feast)|Corpus Christi]] (''Fête-Dieu''), the ''Place Dauphine'' hosted one of the most magnificent ''reposoirs'' (portable altars for the Host).

Along with all the rich silverwork and tapestries placed on it, some local silversmiths ordered paintings for these. This led to art dealers being asked to participate and, ultimately, to the newest talents being shown at the ''Petite Fête-Dieu'' (the Small Corpus Christi), a reduced version of the Corpus Christi holiday which took place eight days later. Though their canvases were only shown from six in the morning to noon, this became an important opportunity for unknown artists to draw attention. Among other things, this led to the painters there signing their work, as was not frequent in the Salon – which was not always an advantage when the work was publicly and loudly critiqued.

Showing works, which often had no pretense of a religious subject, they might then be noticed and find an entree into the official Academy. Chardin is one of the most famous painters to have started this way.

<blockquote>In 1720, a young man of about twenty-two, son of the man who maintained the king's billiards, displayed a canvas here showing an antique bas-relief. J.-B. Vanloo passed by, looked at the canvas for a long time, found great qualities there, and bought it. He wanted afterwards to know the young painter, encouraged him, gave him advice, of which the latter perhaps had no need, got him work, which was more useful, and eight years later, the unknown of the ''place Dauphine'' was his colleague at the Academy of Painting.... he was called [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin]].<ref>Fournier 1862, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w3jG6Xy1rHUC&pg=PA299 vol. 1, pp. 299–300].</ref></blockquote>

The slow decline of the bridge's central role began in 1754: "Starting in 1754, the first year of the vogue, the madness of the boulevards, it was no longer the thing to talk about the ''Cours'' [the Champs-Elysées], and still less of this poor Pont-Neuf. To the Boulevard, at once, long live the Boulevard!".<ref>Fournier 1862, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Urm2Cv1o_jYC&pg=PA345 vol. 2, p. 345].</ref> Still the bridge remained a lively place through the end of the century. With time, people became wary of its reputation and other changes subdued its atmosphere. In 1840, Lacroix wrote:  "Once the pont Neuf was a perpetual fair; at present, it is just a bridge to be crossed without stopping."<ref>Lacroix 1858, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvRAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA347 p. 347].</ref>