Boulevard des Italiens, Morning, Sunlight

1897

Camille Pissarro

Artist, French, born St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1830 - 1903

We look down onto a wide, bustling, tree-lined avenue filled with buildings, people, and horse-drawn carriages in this horizontal painting. Muted, warm browns, sage green, slate blue, and brick red dominate the urban scene, which is loosely painted with short and long dotted brushstrokes so some details are difficult to make out. The street extends diagonally up from our lower left with wide gray sidewalks on either side, which are lined by slender trees sparsely dotted with brown leaves. Dozens of pedestrians meander individually, in pairs, and in small groups on the sidewalks in coats and hats. Across from us, multi-storied buildings with store fronts at street level stretch across the width of the canvas. Rows of windows line the facades. Horse-drawn carriages move in both directions on the street and two omnibuses have pulled to the curb closest to us, where passengers have lined up. Two brick-red, hexagonally shaped kiosks stand opposite each other on either side of the street about halfway along the boulevard. Sunlight filters onto the scene, creating a dappled effect in some areas, especially over to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark green in the lower right corner: “C.Pissarro.97.”

Media Options

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Hoping people would buy cityscapes of Paris, Pissarro set himself up in a series of apartments to paint views of the capital. We look down on a grand boulevard made when Paris was transformed by the urban renewal project of the 1850s and 1860s. The street is lined by now fully grown trees and buildings designed for maximum density. It is filled with kiosks (“street furniture,” as they were called), horse-drawn carriages, and commuter omnibuses. People crowd the sidewalks. Pissarro captures the energy and bustling traffic of Paris as the capital of the modern world.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 89

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 73.2 x 92.1 cm (28 13/16 x 36 1/4 in.)
    framed: 100.3 x 92.1 x 7 cm (39 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.198

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Sold by the artist 11 May 1897 to (Durand-Ruel, Paris); by whom sold 26 March 1904 to (Paul Cassirer, Berlin, and London);[1] sold that same day to A. Idell.[2] Lessing, Berlin; sold to (Paul Rosenberg and Co., London and New York); by whom sold February 1929 to (Wildenstein & Co., London and New York); sold 1929 to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York;[3] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1]Durand-Ruel purchase and sale dates per letter from Charles Durand-Ruel dated 12 July 1983 in NGA curatorial files. [2] Idell per Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Catalogue critique des peintures, vol. III:no. 1174. [3] Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1898

  • Camille Pissarro, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1898, no. 8

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1982

  • Manet and Modern Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982-1983, no. 9, repro.

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1907

  • Meier-Graefe, Julius. Impressionisten. Munich, 1907:repro. 167

1930

  • Kunstler, Charles. Camille Pissarro. Paris, 1930:repro. 19

1939

  • Pissarro, Ludovic and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, son art, son oeuvre. 2 vols. Paris, 1939: 1:220, no. 1000, as Boulevard des Italiens, Matin, Effet de Soleil; 2:pl. 201.

1941

  • Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 10-11, repro. pl. XIX, as Boulevard Montmarte

1942

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 59, repro.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 176, color repro., as Boulevard Montmartre.

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 59, repro.

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. French Impressionists and their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944: repro. 90.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 69, repro.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 24.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 325, repro.

  • Rewald, John. Camille Pissarro, New York, 1963:148, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 104.

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 105, repro.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:456, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 91, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 270, repro.

1979

  • Lloyd, Christopher. Pissarro. Oxford, 1979:10, repro.

1980

  • Shikes, Ralph E. and Paula Harper. Pissarro: His Life and Work. New York, 1980:605, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 508, no. 756, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 313, repro.

1995

  • Gombrich, Ernst. The Story of Art. 16th ed. London, 1995: 522-523, color fig. 340.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 386, no. 319, color repro.

2005

  • Pissarro, Joachim and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of the Paintings, 3 vols., Milan, Paris and New York, 2005: III:no. 1174, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: C.Pissarro.97

Wikidata ID

Q20190568

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