Pissarro, Camille (1830-1903)
Place Lafayette, Rouen
1883
Oil on canvas, 46.3 x 55.7 cm
Courtauld Institute of Art, London
This is one of 17 paintings produced by Camille Pissarro in 1883, during his first visit to the northern French city of Rouen, which he declared to be as beautiful as Venice. Pissarro shunned the typical picturesque vistas offered from the surrounding hills, seen on the horizon. He was excited instead by the city’s industrial life, particularly the ‘workers on the quays, boats, smoke, mist in the distance’, which he captured here from the balcony of a café overlooking the Seine. Sunlight and shadow are conveyed in sharply hatched brushstrokes. (Courtauld)