– which was not always an advantage when the work was publicly and loudly critiqued. Showing works, which often had no pretense of a religious subject, they might then be noticed and find an entree into the official Academy. Chardin is one of the most famous painters to have started this way. In 1720, a young man of about twenty-two, son of the man who maintained the king's billiards, displayed a canvas here showing an antique bas-relief. J.-B. Vanloo passed by, looked at the canvas for a long time, found great qualities there, and bought it. He wanted afterwards to know the young painter, encouraged him, gave him advice, of which the latter perhaps had no need, got him work, which was more useful, and eight years later, the unknown of the place Dauphine was his colleague at the Academy of Painting.... he was called Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. The slow decline of the bridge's central role began in 1754: "Starting in 1754, the first year of the vogue, the madness of the boulevards, it was no longer the thing to talk about the Cours [the Champs-Elysées], and still less of this poor Pont-Neuf. To the Boulevard, at once, long live the Boulevard!". Still the bridge remained a lively place through the end of the century. With time, people became wary of its reputation and other changes subdued its atmosphere. In 1840, Lacroix wrote: "Once the pont Neuf was a perpetual fair; at present, it is just a bridge to be crossed without stopping." Possible first photograph of human being In 1838, Louis Daguerre produced his famous daguerreotype portrait of the View of the Boulevard du Temple, widely considered the first photograph where a human can be seen. However, between 1836 and 1837, Daguerre made several test portraits, in order to experiment with and perfect the new technique in an outdoor environment. One surviving example is an image of the Pont Neuf and the equestrian statue of Henry IV. On the lower-left side of the image, what appears to be a worker, or perhaps two, can be seen lying against the fence, in the shadow of the statue. Christo's project In 1985, after years of negotiation with the mayor of Paris, the art duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Pont Neuf. Access See also Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge), a film by Leos Carax, released in 1991 List