Although Haussmannization would continue, in some form or another, through the end of the century, by the time Paris hosted the universal exhibition in 1878 the city had been utterly transformed, both physically and culturally. Traffic hurtled at a dizzying pace on the broad boulevards planted with slender saplings, while elegant new parks offered a break from the incessant pace of modern urban life. The city was adorned with thousands of new gas lamps, fountains that provided fresh drinking water, advertising kiosks, and even public bathrooms. But the costs of modernization were steep: entire neighborhoods were torn down, communities uprooted (especially those of the working class), and familiar ways of life pulverized. For many, the rapidly changing city fueled a keen sense of estrangement. Under Haussmann, one writer lamented, “Paris no longer had citizens, only inhabitants.”
When Marville died on June 1, 1879, the city he had known as a youth—with its warren of small, crooked streets, dilapidated buildings, neighborhood shops, and small trades—had been more or less replaced by a cleaner, straighter, and altogether grander version of itself. It appears that Marville too had been superseded: the photographer who had produced some of the most riveting urban imagery in the 19th century did not receive a single obituary.