Since antiquity, the Seine has been the main artery and most defining physical characteristic of Paris. In the mid-nineteenth century it was crowded with barges loading and unloading commercial goods, with floating bathhouses, and with smaller boats moving people and products more quickly than surface roads allowed. This photograph, made by Charles Nègre just steps from his home on the Île Saint-Louis, reveals a painter's eye in its stark contrast of light and shadow, zigzagging composition, and myriad details of life and commerce on the Seine.