Pissarro, Camille (1830-1903)
Le Boulevard Montmartre à Paris (Boulevard Montmartre in Paris)
1897
Oil on canvas, 74 x 92.8 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Like Claude Monet, Pissarro, an outstanding representative of the Impressionist movement, often painted whole series of works showing the same motif. This painting belongs to a series of views the Boulevard Montmartre, for which the artist rented a room in the Grand Hotel de Russie from which he could see all the “grands boulevards”. Pissarro depicted this view at different hours of the day, in different weather conditions, creating a total of 13 paintings taken from the same viewpoint. Here the master skilfully conveyed the rich atmospheric effects, the complex colours and ethereal feeling of a gloomy day. This image of fast-moving, dynamic urban life, so convincingly captured by the artist’s rapid brushwork, presents the image of a contemporary city – not in a ceremonial or official mood, but animated and alive. Such urban landscapes formed the central motif in Pissarro‘s work. (SHM)