View of Paris from Montmartre

Antonín Chittussi was the most significant Czech landscape painter of his generation — his extended period in France exposed him to Barbizon naturalism and gave him the pictorial means to depict the Bohemian landscape with a new atmospheric honesty. His 'View of Paris from Montmartre' (1887) is unusual among his subjects — primarily a landscape painter of Czech subjects, his Parisian view shows his engagement with the French capital where he trained and worked. The view from Montmartre was among the most celebrated urban vistas in Europe, the hill offering a panorama of the expanding Haussmannian city.

Chittussi renders the Paris panorama with the atmospheric sensitivity his Barbizon training had given him — the vast urban expanse spread below Montmartre depicted with the same tonal control and atmospheric honesty he brought to his Czech landscape subjects. His handling of the Parisian haze and the quality of light over the city creates the atmospheric character of the specific view. The combination of the natural hill setting of Montmartre and the dense urban fabric below creates the subject's formal contrast.