These two paintings show contrasting views of Paris life in 1889. On the left is Jens Ferdinand Willumsen's Dans une blanchisserie francaise, 1889, oil on canvas, now in the Konstmuseet in Goteborg. Emile Zola would be very comfortable with this representation and has descriptions of such scenes in L'Assommoir. On the right is Jean Beraud's La patisserie Gloppe, 1889, oil on canvas, Carnavelet. This shows a very bourgeois experience. It reminds me of the patisserie Paul in the 6th arrondissement today. These images are from Duby, L'Histoire de Paris par la Peinture.

There is a Universal Exhibition in Paris this year, anchored by the Eiffel Tower. The painting to the left is by Paul Louis Delance and titled La Tour Eiffel vue de la Seine, 1887, oil on canvas, Carnavalet. This image is from Duby, L'Histoire de Paris par la Peinture.

Mary Cassett, Mother and Child, 1889, Oil on canvas, 90 x 64.5 cm, Wichita Art Museum, Kansas, right.

Postcards are introduced in France. (CHF)

The first telephone book in Paris is produced. (AF)

Van Gogh paints  two Portraits a l'oreille coupee. (CHF)

Street scene by Jean Beraud, 1889. (Image Almanach Francais.)

Toulouse-Lautrec paints La Buveuse. (CHF)

Brevet d'Emile Reynaud opens a 'theatre optique.' a precursor to the cinema.

The centennial of the Revolution is celebrated and the bodies of a number of historic figures are moved to the Pantheon as their resting place. (AF)

Faure composes Spleen. (CHF)

Brown-Sequard discovers internal secretion glands. (CHF)

In December Paris has an influenza epidemic with several hundred deaths. (AF)

The fallout from the Panama Canal financial scandal continues. (AF)