Lot Essay
Petitjean was travelling and sketching in Mexico in the 1860s, at the time of the French occupation and Emperor Maximilian. For a review of his work in Mexico, see A. de Los Reyes, 'Captura y reproducción del instante decisivo en el siglo XIX' in the exhibition catalogue Viageros Europeos del Siglo XIX en México (Casa de América, Madrid, March 1997), Mexico, 1996, pp. 225-33.