View down the boulevard toward the Panthéon
Serge Hambourg, French, 1936 - 2019
negative May 11, 1968; print 2006
Digital print from scanned 35 mm black and white negative
Overall: 28 × 24 in. (71.1 × 61 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Hood Museum of Art Acquisitions Fund
2006.88.3
Printer
Toronto Image Works Limited
Geography
Place Imaged: Paris, France, Western Europe, Europe
Place Made: France, Europe
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Label
Serge Hambourg captured upturned cobblestones in the city street, the wide and crisp boulevard culminating in the hazy Pantheon’s impressive dome. This photograph was taken in 1968 in the wake of student-led protesters who tore up the streets, hoping to build barricades. They were speaking out against the closure of the University of Paris in Nanterre, followed by the shuttering of the Sorbonne. Hambourg contrasts the streets, empty in the aftermath of unrest, with the stark, towering Pantheon on the horizon—a reminder of where it all began and ended. An air of resistance seems to permeate the fog, echoing France’s turbulent 19th-century revolutionary history; cyclically, modern protesters hark back to the strategy of historical actors. Today, the act of protesting is commonly referred to as a French “national sport.”
From the 2025 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 125, Chasing Modernity: Fleeting Moments and Elusive Urbanity, curated by Ellie Brown ’25, Conroy Intern
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 125, Chasing Modernity: Fleeting Moments and Elusive Urbanity, curated by Ellie Brown ’25, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 2 - September 7, 2025.
Protest in Paris 1968: Photographs by Serge Hambourg, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 9-November 19, 2006.
Publication History
Anne Sa'adah and Thomas Crow, Protest in Paris 1968: Photographs by Serge Hambourg, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2006, p. 63, no. 15.
Provenance
Serge Hambourg, Paris, France; sold to present collection, 2006.
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