Montmartre

Montmartre of 1881 captures the hillside neighborhood before it became the international artistic capital of legend. In 1881 Montmartre was still on the periphery of Paris proper — a neighborhood of windmills, market gardens, working-class housing, and the beginnings of the café and entertainment culture that would define it in the 1880s and 1890s. Béraud's interest in the subject reflects his methodical documentation of Paris's diverse neighborhoods, from the grand boulevards of the Second Empire to the more informal zones on the city's edges. A Montmartre painting from this specific year precedes the area's transformation by the construction of the Sacré-Cœur basilica (begun 1875, visible on the hill from the mid-1880s) and the full flowering of its bohemian artistic community, making it an early record of a neighborhood in transition.

Oil paint on canvas with attention to Montmartre's distinctive topography — its steep streets and elevated vantage points offering unusual compositional opportunities. Béraud renders the neighborhood's informal architecture and street life with the same precise social observation he applied to more fashionable Paris locations, treating the working-class setting with the same documentary seriousness.