Louis de Grave

Louis de Grave left almost no trace beyond his paintings, making him a ghost in the corner of 18th-century Paris. He spent years painting the same stretch of the Seine, always from the same bench, until the river became his only biographer. Look up *View of the Pont Neuf from the Quai des Orfèvres* (1795) and you’ll see why: the water shivers under a sky that feels alive, like the city itself is holding its breath.