What Is Called Vagrancy

In 1855 Paris held its first Universal Exhibition, a showcase for Napoleon III's young empire, and Alfred Stevens sent in this winter street scene. Soldiers of the light infantry, the chasseurs, march a young mother through the snow, a baby in her arms and a boy hiding his face at her side. A well-dressed woman in a red hood walks with them, trying to offer help, and on the wall behind, a torn poster advertises a ball. According to the Musée d'Orsay, the emperor saw the painting and ordered that soldiers should no longer be used to round up the poor from the streets, and that they be taken away by carriage instead. The picture later belonged to the painter Léon Lhermitte, and it entered the national collections through his bequest in 1926.