An entire cottage industry cropped up devoted to the documentation of the defeat of the Commune and the gutted buildings and burned rooftops left in its wake. Photograph albums of the destroyed facades of once-beautiful buildings served as memorials to the destructive effects of political radicalism. The widespread devastation is remarked upon by all the writers of the period, and images in the popular illustrated journals all pointed to the ruined landscape that once boasted some of the most spectacular topography in Europe. The lavish quarters and parks built under Haussmann had been reduced to charred timbers and piles of rubble. Despite the frightful appearance of Paris in June 1871, however, the thoughts of Goncourt and his friend, the art critic and moderate republican Philippe Burty, turned to the possibilities of renewal: "We speak of the sad state of things and we see no resurrection for France except through her admirable capacity for hard work, through the ability to work day and night which other countries do not have." Is it a coincidence that Burty, soon to become one of the leading apologists for the Impressionists, commends the artists in his review of the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876 for being "hard-working..."?
Albert Boime, Art and the French Commune: Imagining Paris after War and Revolution