Boulevard Montmartre, sunny afternoon

This 1897 canvas in an Orsay Pissarro-Sisley room captures the Boulevard Montmartre on a sunny afternoon — one of the most luminous of the boulevard series. The afternoon sun on the broad Haussmann-era boulevard created the warmest, most golden of the light conditions Pissarro recorded from his hotel room window. This is among the most celebrated of the boulevard paintings, conveying the sheer energy and movement of Paris in its Belle Époque vitality. The animated crowd, the trees in full leaf, and the warm afternoon light combined to make this one of the most optimistic images in the entire Impressionist canon.

Afternoon sunshine is rendered in warm gold, ochre, and pale cream, with the boulevard's tree canopy providing dappled light below. Pissarro's marks are particularly lively and varied — quick dabs for the crowd, longer strokes for facades and road surface, small touches for individual leaves. The chromatic warmth of the afternoon light suffuses the entire composition.