Clairac, general view

The anonymous author of this great painting on cardboard gives us a marvellous testimony of Clairac in the middle of the 19^th century. If we examine the houses, one after the other, their rendering is topographically accurate from the houses at the end of the impasse du Clocher (we can distinguish the mullioned window from one of them) through the house of Judge Fauquier which is at the entrance of the dead end whose roof was later leveled, then the high roof of the “castle” which dominates the house of Bacalan which still exists; then the Pucheran house and its high chimneys before it was transformed in the 1900s, or the house of Adolphe Delpech, mayor of Clairac, and its small pediment…
On the suspension bridge – whose bright white stone tells us that it is still recent – passes a carriage drawn by a white horse. At the foot of the hold, the numerous washerwomen (perhaps they are commenting on the Clairacaises stories of the day...); behind them, hanging in the branches, the white linen floats and is reflected in the Lot.

With a real concern for composition, our painter created a foreground with the corner of one of the houses on Quai Bourbon, in Longueville, adorned with a beautiful lantern, at the foot of which hollyhocks seek light. He had probably set up his easel near the bargemen's house, which is still signposted to strollers.