“The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning”
This gorgeous oil on canvas depiction of a bird’s eye view of Paris is by the Danish-French artist of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, Camille Pissarro from 1897, and is titled “The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning”. This is one of several pieces that Pissarro did recording the bustling life of Paris.
Pissarro had recently returned to Paris after spending 6 years in the more rural town of Éragny approximately 25 miles northwest of Paris. Paris was now a booming city and was the place to be for art, business, and trade. The several Exposition Universelles introduced the metro and the Eiffel Tower which helped redefine what a city could be. Pissarro recognized this and wanted to document the new fast pace of city life.
Pissarro painted this view of Boulevard Montmartre from his hotel window at the Grand Hôtel de Russie from where he created a series of thirteen paintings. In his later years, Pissarro was struggling with a recurring eye infection and as he had to avoid the cold wind, could only paint outdoors in warm weather. In order to continue his work year-round, he rented hotel rooms on upper levels throughout Paris and would paint these grand birds-eye view landscapes that he could see just outside his window. This technique was a success for him, and Pissarro did this in multiple hotels throughout several cities.
“The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning” is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
For more on Camille Pissarro, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
