The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning

Painted in January 1897 from a third-floor window of the Hôtel de Russie on the Boulevard Montmartre, this Metropolitan Museum canvas is one of Pissarro's most celebrated urban works. He painted the same boulevard fourteen times in that winter and spring, recording it under snow, rain, sunshine, and fog. The winter morning version shows the stripped plane trees lining the boulevard, the grey sky, and the ant-like pedestrians and carriages moving below — reducing the street to a rhythmic pattern of movement and light. The Boulevard Montmartre series was an immediate commercial success and established Pissarro's second reputation as a master of the urban panorama.

Pissarro builds the winter street scene in a cool palette of grey-blues, pale lavenders, and the warm brown-ochre of the building facades. Individual figures are suggested by single strokes of dark colour. The leafless plane trees create a delicate, branching pattern against the sky. The high viewpoint flattens and enriches the scene.