“Adolphe Yvon. Who was he?” you might ask while standing here on Rue Adolphe-Yvon. This street is named after the French painter Adolphe Yvon. It is located in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.
Rue Adolphe-Yvon is a short street. It stretches just 130 meters. It is about 12 meters wide. The street begins at Place Tattegrain. It ends at Boulevard Lannes. You will notice that traffic flows in only one direction.
Adolphe Yvon lived on this very street. He resided here from 1868 until his death in 1893. Before 1896 this area was part of Rue de la Tour. The city decided to honor the painter. So it renamed this section Rue Adolphe-Yvon.
Yvon was born in 1817. He gained fame for his paintings of the Napoleonic Wars. He studied under Paul Delaroche. Later he became a teacher himself.
Yvon’s paintings often depicted battle scenes. The French government commissioned him to paint “The Capture of the Malakoff”. He spent six weeks in Crimea sketching the battlefield. He also visited Inkerman. His finished painting was massive. It measured six meters by nine meters.
Napoleon III admired Yvon’s battle scenes. In 1867, Yvon became an officer of the Légion d’Honneur. He painted Napoleon III’s portrait the next year.
At number 4 Rue Adolphe-Yvon stands the Cambodian Embassy in France. Once at number 6 stood Hôtel Stern. It was built for the novelist Claude Vignon in 1866. She even added a bas-relief. The building suffered damage during the Siege of Paris. Later Prince George of Greece owned the property. During World War I, it served as a small hospital.
At number 12 once stood the home of novelist Xavier de Montépin. He lived there from 1882 until his death in 1902. Numbers 14, 16, and 18 were replaced by a modern building in 1960.
Number 14 was once the Académie Adolphe-Yvon art school. Art critic Louis Vauxcelles taught art history there. Number 16 was Adolphe Yvon’s home. Number 18 was the Paris residence of American millionaire James Hazen Hyde.
Today Rue Adolphe-Yvon is a quiet street. But it holds stories of artists writers and diplomats. As you walk along, remember Adolphe Yvon. He was a painter whose legacy lives on in the street that bears his name.