Camille PISSARRO
French 1830-1903
Boulevard Montmartre, morning, cloudy weather
1897
oil on canvas
73.0 x 92.0 cm
Felton Bequest 1905
204-2

Pissarro was represented in every Impressionist exhibition from 1874 until 1886 and he knew and painted with all the key members of the group, including Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Gaugin, Sisley and, relevant for this painting, the Pointillist artist Signac.

This work an outstanding example Pissarro's late style which is an intriguing mix of Impressionism and Pointillism, characterised by the work being mostly made up of small dab-like brushstrokes, yet remaining quite linear in appearance and structure.

The view is from a window of a room Pissarro occupied at the Grand Hotel in Paris in 1897, where he executed thirteen canvases of the Boulevard Montmartre at different times of the day and night, in contrasting light and weather conditions. This city was an important subject for Pissarro, as it was for many Impressionist painters.