Fête à l'ambassade d'Angleterre à Paris

Félix Ziem was one of the most prolific and commercially successful French painters of the nineteenth century, best known for his luminous views of Venice that sold widely through the Parisian art market. His 'Fête à l'ambassade d'Angleterre à Paris' (1889) represents a departure from his typical Venetian and Oriental subjects into the territory of elegant Parisian social life — a celebration at the British Embassy in Paris, with its combination of diplomatic ceremonial and fashionable society. The subject allowed Ziem to apply his coloristic sensibility to the illuminated splendor of an evening reception.

Ziem's handling of an illuminated evening reception applies his characteristic facility with brilliant color and light to an indoor social subject. His ability to create the sense of warm light and festive atmosphere that he deployed in his Venetian reflections is here directed at the aristocratic interior. The gathering's elaborate dress and the building's illumination provide the chromatic richness that his painting technique always sought.