With the exceptional support of the Musée d'Orsay, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée départemental Albert Kahn and the Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris
In the major metropolises, first and foremost Paris, places of commerce are multiplying and diversifying. The appearance of department stores does not lead to the disappearance of street vendors, stalls or traditional shops. The street extends the shop. Goods abound and the show is permanent. In the 19th century, descriptions of shops and merchandise became increasingly important in travel stories and guides. From signs of the general prosperity of the city, places of commerce become places of «shopping». Defined as the pleasure of comparing and evaluating goods and shops, «shopping» - a term that gradually appeared in the 19th century - is a social, cultural and leisure activity. It is fed by sales artifices and an advertising arsenal soon omnipresent. The layout of displays and storefronts, advertisements in the press, branded cars, sales catalogues, promotional items, posters and signs: all contribute to creating a small theatre of merchandise. The artists of modern life are privileged witnesses of the economic, visual and social transformations of cities. Their gaze lingers on the effervescence of consumption. Sensitive to the presence of street merchants, the gestures of milliners, the attitudes of the café boys, he still raises the letters of the signs and advertisements that make the city a «store of images and signs» as Charles Baudelaire wrote in 1859.