Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning
Camille Pissarro · Impressionism
- Artist
- Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
- Date
- 1897
- Dimensions
- 64.8 x 81.3 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
This painting shows the same Paris boulevard as seen from Pissarro's hotel window, this time on a grey winter morning, with bare trees, a pale sky and the street busy with carriages, omnibuses and pedestrians.
A closer look
The boulevard sweeps diagonally into the distance between two rows of tall buildings, drawing the eye towards a hazy horizon. Pissarro used soft greys, mauves and browns, with small touches of colour, to capture the cold, damp atmosphere and the bustle of traffic. Seen from above, the people become a flowing current of dark dabs. Pissarro wrote to his son that the view was 'almost vertical', with the boulevard 'running away' to the horizon, which he found very beautiful for painting.
More by Camille Pissarro
In this gallery
Woman in a Green Headscarf
Haymaking at Éragny
The Boulevard Montmartre, Afternoon Sun
The Boulevard Montmartre at Night