La Butte aux Cailles

La Butte aux Cailles was a working-class hill neighborhood in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, one of the areas where the old village character of the pre-Haussmann city had survived into the twentieth century in the form of low houses, irregular streets, and working-class community life. Bonneton's 1901 view of the Butte documents this neighborhood before the major infrastructure changes that would alter its character — the construction of the swimming pool and the tramway network that transformed the area in subsequent decades. The neighborhood's name, meaning 'quail knoll,' referred to the bird-catching that had once taken place there on open land before the city engulfed it. The Musée Carnavalet holds this as part of its systematic collection of endangered Parisian neighborhoods.

Bonneton captures the irregular topography of the Butte with a composition that allows the hillside street to create a naturally varied rhythm of facades and open spaces. His loose, atmospheric brushwork gives the scene the quality of a passing observation rather than a formal composition, appropriate to the neighborhood's informal character.