Boulevard of Montmartre in the afternoon by Camille Pissarro

This sumptuous panoramic view plunges the gaze into the beating heart of the modern metropolis through a dizzying perspective. Masterfully painted by the famous artist Camille Pissarro, this highly fine work of art called “Boulevard of Montmartre in the afternoon” beautifully illustrates the hectic life of the boulevards. The artist favors an elevated angle of view to embrace the immensity of the roadway and the rhythm of urban traffic. This creation perfectly embodies the aesthetic ideal of the impressionist movement applied to the city.

The composition is organized around a huge avenue receding toward the horizon, lined on each side by perfect alignments of tall residential buildings in light stone with roofs dotted with brick chimneys. An incredible multitude of horse-drawn vehicles, dark cabs, and carriages fills the grey roadway, moving in orderly lines. On the sidewalks, streams of pedestrians form a moving mass stretching along the shops with extended awnings. Several trees with russet autumn foliage or bare branches punctuate the sides of the road, while a vast changing sky, cluttered with large white and grey clouds, dominates the city, diffusing a homogeneous natural light.

The exceptional artisanal know-how is manifested in the precision of the linear perspective and the management of the pictorial space. The vibrant and fragmented brushstroke succeeds in rendering the effect of a multitude and the rumble of the city with striking and poetic realism.