MACHY, Pierre-Antoine de
(b. 1723, Paris, d. 1807, Paris)

Demolition of L'Église des Saints Innocents, Paris

c. 1787
Oil on panel, 49 x 63 cm
Private collection

L'Église des Saints Innocents (Church of the Holy Innocents) was located in the cemetery of the same name on the rue Saint-Denis in Paris In 1786, a Parliamentary public health order decreed that the cemetery and church be destroyed to make way for a marketplace. De Machy painted numerous paintings and drawings of the church both before and during its destruction, the present painting is probably one of the three which were exhibited in the Salon of 1787.