The Place du Havre, Paris

Notes from the museum

After a period of experimentation with the Neo-Impressionist style developed by Georges Seurat , Camille Pissarro returned to the loose, multidirectional brushstrokes that he had used in his earlier Impressionist works. He also revisited an Impressionist subject that his colleagues had all but abandoned by the 1890s—the modern city. This bustling scene, alive with the noise and movement of traffic and pedestrians, was the view from his window at the Hôtel Garnier in Paris, where he stayed for a few weeks early in 1893. The building at the left edge of the canvas is the Gare Saint-Lazare.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Camille Pissarro

Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas. His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

Painter profile →