12. Springtime in Paris

Even if we cannot travel much at the moment to see the delights of Spring around the world, we can still admire depictions of it in paintings. Let’s see how spring compares between the collections in London (V&A) and Paris (Louvre) collections

import sys
sys.path.append("/srv/explore-the-collections/code/ivpy/src")

V&A Collections

First we query the API for objects of type “Oil painting” and containing the word Spring.

import pandas as pd
vam_spring_df = pd.read_csv("https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/objects/search?q=spring&images_exist=true&page=1&kw_object_type=Oil%20painting&response_format=csv")
vam_spring_df.head(10)
accessionNumber accessionYear systemNumber objectType _primaryTitle _primaryPlace _primaryMaker__name _primaryMaker__association _primaryDate _primaryImageId _sampleMaterial _sampleTechnique _sampleStyle _currentLocation__displayName _objectContentWarning _imageContentWarning
0 367-1901 1901.0 O54265 Oil painting Spring NaN Platzer, Johann Georg artist pre 1761 2006BG0261 oil paint oil painting Austrian School In store False False
1 1601-1869 1869.0 O134110 Oil painting The Spring Switzerland Menn, Barthélémy painter (artist) pre 1868 2007BP0651 oil paint oil painting Swiss School In store False False
2 E.322-1934 1934.0 O134545 Oil Painting Spring Great Britain Gertler, Mark painter (artist) 1931 2007BM8274 oil paint oil painting British School PDP Temporary Store False False
3 CAI.172 NaN O81631 Oil painting Study for the four seasons: Spring (Daphnis an... France Millet, Jean-François artist Before 1865 2007BN4453 oil paint oil painting French School Paintings, Room 81, The Edwin and Susan Davies... False False
4 144-1888 1888.0 O125151 Oil painting Spring: East Bergholt Common England Constable, John (RA) artist ca. 1814 2006BC6067 oil paint oil painting British School NaN False False
5 224-1879 1879.0 O16546 Oil painting Disturbed: A Plover Rising from Its Nest England Oakes, John Wright artist 1879 2006AH8785 oil paint oil painting NaN In store False False
6 FA.187[O] NaN O77070 Oil painting Spring Flowers Britain Smith, George artist 1851 2006AL8240 oil paint oil painting British School British Galleries, Room 122 False False
7 P.12-1947 1947.0 O17306 Oil painting The Milkmaid's Garland, or Humours of May Day London Hayman, Francis (RA) painter (artist) 1741-1742 2006AM5395 oil paint oil painting British School British Galleries, Room 52, The George Levy Ga... False False
8 P.70-1986 1986.0 O78693 Oil painting Country Dances Round a Maypole London Hayman, Francis (RA) painter (artist) 1741-1742 2006AN2177 oil paint oil painting British School British Galleries, Room 52, The George Levy Ga... False False
9 FA.241[O] NaN O15091 Oil painting The Dawn of Love England Brooks, Thomas artist 1846 2006AV0394 oil paint oil painting British School In store False False
from ivpy import attach,show

IIIF_IMAGE_URL = "https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/%s/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg"
vam_spring_df._primaryImageId = [IIIF_IMAGE_URL % item for item in vam_spring_df._primaryImageId]
attach(vam_spring_df, "_primaryImageId")
show()
_images/data-exploration-12_4_0.png

Louvre

The Louvre have recently released a new collections site which lets us export search results as a CSV file.

Note

This is a cached version of the CSV file because of an issue with cipher settings

#import urllib3
#import requests
import pandas as pd

df_louvre_printemps = pd.read_csv("louvre-spring.csv", sep=";")
df_louvre_printemps.head(15)
ARK Object name/Title Author Date Inventory number Collection
0 cl010057106 Le Printemps / Jupiter Alaux, Jean ; France ; Primaticcio, Francesc... 1834 INV 451; LP 5815; LP 5816 Département des Peintures
1 cl010057782 Le Printemps France ; Oudry, Jean-Baptiste 1700 / 1800 (XVIIIe siècle) INV 7051; MV 8538; B 905 Département des Peintures
2 cl010060674 Le Printemps Mauzaisse, Jean Baptiste ; France 1825 / 1850 (2e quart du XIXe siècle) INV 6539; C 298 bis Département des Peintures
3 cl010056799 Le Printemps Coypel, Antoine ; France 1699 INV 8685; B 1708 Département des Peintures
4 cl010059406 Le printemps Rousseau, Théodore ; France 1850 / 1875 (3e quart du XIXe siècle) RF 1450 Département des Peintures
5 cl010067341 Le printemps Vauchelet, Théophile-Auguste ; France 1800 / 1900 (XIXe siècle) INV 20887 Département des Peintures
6 cl010060578 Le Printemps Lancret, Nicolas ; France 1738 INV 5597; B 701 Département des Peintures
7 cl010057734 Le Printemps Boucher, François ; France 1753 INV 2703 Département des Peintures
8 cl010061105 Le Printemps Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, Anne-Louis ; France 1800 / 1900 (XIXe siècle) INV 4952; MR 1768 Département des Peintures
9 cl010065015 Le Printemps Arcimboldo, Giuseppe ; Italie 1573 RF 1964 30 Département des Peintures
10 cl010062521 Le Printemps Poussin, Nicolas ; France 1660 / 1664 (3e quart du XVIIe siècle) INV 7303; MR 2327 Département des Peintures
11 cl010061819 Le Printemps et l'Été Coypel, Noël ; France 1660 / 1700 (Fin du XVIIe siècle) INV 3036; B 1746 Département des Peintures
12 cl010061624 Le Printemps. Bergers et bergères Anonyme ; France 1700 / 1750 (1e moitié du XVIIIe siècle) INV 8863; B 1598 Département des Peintures
13 cl010063018 Printemps. East Bergholt Common (Suffolk) Constable, John ; Grande-bretagne 1840 RF 1241 Département des Peintures
14 cl010063616 Rosny. Vue du village au printemps. Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille ; France 1839 RF 2603 Département des Peintures

Lineup

We can explore the CSV a litte more using the excellent Lineup widget

import lineup_widget
import pandas as pd

w = lineup_widget.LineUpWidget(df_louvre_printemps)
w.on_selection_changed(lambda selection: print(selection))
w

Spring in East Bergholt

An item in common in both collections is a work by John Constable. At the moment we can’t bring the two object images together side-by-side to compare them, but we can look at the V&A painting here using IIIF:

from IPython.display import Image

Image(url = "https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BC6067/full/600,/0/default.jpg")

and you can see the Louvre version (a copy after the engraving by David Lucas) on their website.

Springtime in Paris / Paris in Springtime

Further work is needed to identify the best depicition of Paris in Springtime.