Camille Pissarro, Avenue de l'Opera: Morning Sunshine, left.

Pissarro, Avenue de l'Opera, Place du Theatre Francais: Misty Weather, 1898, Oil on canvas, 74 x 91.5 cm,             Private collection, New York.

First TSF transmission for the Eiffel Tower. TSF is telegraphie sans fil, or a wireless broadcast. (CHF)

Rodin produces his sculpture of Balzac. This is refused by the Committee of the People of Letters, for whom it is intended. (CHF)

Emile Zola writes an inflammatory open letter titled 'J'accuse' in the journal L'Aurore criticizing the government. This causes grand agitation throughout the country and Zola is condemned to a year in prison and fined 3000 francs. (AF)

Emile Zola publishes Paris, the last of a three volume trilogy (the others being Lourdes and Rome. He has a number of graphic descriptions of the conditions of the Paris poor. Here is one. It describes an abbe going into a tenement to look for someone.

"After two months of bitter cold, ice and snow, the city was steeped in a mournful, quivering thaw.  From the far-spreading, leaden-hued heavens a thick mist fell like a mourning shroud.  All the eastern portion of the city, the abodes of misery and toil, seemed submerged beneath ruddy steam, amid which the panting of workshops and factories could be detected; while westwards, towards the districts of wealth and enjoyment, the fog broke and lightened, becoming but a fine and motionless veil of vapour.  The curved line of the horizon could scarcely be divined; the expanse of houses, which nothing bounded, appeared like a chaos of stone, studded with stagnant pools, which filled the hollows with pale steam; whilst against them the summits of the edifices, the house-tops of the loftier streets, showed black like soot.  It was a Paris of mystery, shrouded by clouds, buried as it were beneath the ashes of some disaster, already half-sunken in the suffering and the shame of that which its immensity concealed."

"Pierre (the abbe)decided to follow her (a little girl).  She vanished into one of the gaping vestibules, and, in her rear, he climbed a dark and fetid staircase, whose steps were half-broken and so slippery, on account of the vegetable parings strewn over them, that he had to avail himself of the greasy rope by which the inmates hoisted themselves upwards.  But every door was closed; he vainly knocked at several of them, and only elicited, at the last, a stifled growl, as though some despairing animal were confined within.  Returning to the yard he hesitated, then made his way to another staircase, where he was deafened by piercing cries, as a child who is being butchered.  He climbed on hearing this noise, and at last found himself in front of an open room where an infant, who had been left alone, tied in his little chair, in order that he might not fall, was howling without drawing breath.  Then Pierre went down again, upset, frozen by the sight of so much destitution and abandonment. But a woman was coming in, carrying three potatoes in her apron, and on being questioned by him she gazed distrustfully at his cassock. Laveuve, Laveuve, I can't say,' she replied.  ‘If the doorkeeper were there she might be able to tell you.  There are five staircases, you see, and we don't all know each other.  Besides, there are so many changes.  Still, try over there; at the far end.'"

"The staircase at the back of the yard was yet more abominable than the others, its steps warped, its walls slimy, as if soaked with the sweat of anguish.  At each successive floor the drain-sinks exhaled a pestilential stench, whilst from every lodging came moans, or a noise of quarrelling, or some frightful sign of misery.  A door swung open, and a man appeared dragging a woman by the hair, whilst three youngsters sobbed aloud.  On the next floor, Pierre caught a glimpse of a room where a young girl in her teens, racked by coughing, was hastily carrying an infant to and fro to quiet it, in despair that all the milk of her breast should be exhausted.  Then, in an adjoining lodging, came the poignant spectacle of three beings, half clad in shreds, apparently sexless and ageless, who, amidst the dire bareness of their room, were gluttonously eating from the same earthen pan some pottage which even dogs would have refused.  They barely raised their heads to growl, and did not answer Pierre's questions." Paris, Book 1.

Jean Beraud, La sortie de lycee Condorcet, 1898, oil on canvas, Carnavalet. This picture of bourgeois prosperity makes a sharp contrast with Zola's excerpt from Paris. This image is from Duby, L'Histoire de Paris par la Peinture.

There is an automobile show in the Tuileries. (AF)

More broadly in France:

Via the Treaty of Paris, Spain relinquishes the Philippines to the U.S. (CHF)
 
 

Cezanne paints La Montagne Sainte-Victorie.

Females in commerce gain the right to vote for membership of their industrial tribunals. (AF)

The foundation of the league of the rights of man aimed at the defense and rehabilitation of Dreyfus. In the Chamber of Deputies, the minister of war Godefroy Cavaignac affirms Dreyfus' guilt, but is challenged that the documents he relies on are false. An initial producer of the documents is questioned and commits suicide. Madame Dreyfus demands a new hearing on the issue. This is granted. (AF)

The Chamber of Deputies approve a rail project for metropolitan Paris. (AF)

Dueling still occurs - Clemenceau and Drumont fight a duel based on their being on opposite sides in the Dreyfus affair. (AF)

All the racing in France was bound to produce accidents. This year saw the first fatality in a road race. The unfortunate distinction goes to le marquis de Montagnac, who dies when his car goes off the road. (AF)

Radium is discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie. (CHF)

Source: Pissarro image sources: www.artchive.com