The Pont-Neuf, Sunlight (Second Series)

Belonging to the second series of Pissarro's Pont-Neuf paintings from 1902, this canvas is part of a group he executed from a hotel window overlooking Paris's oldest surviving bridge. He had been inspired by Monet's serial method and applied it systematically to Parisian subjects after the success of his Boulevard Montmartre series. The Pont-Neuf, with its sweeping arches and the bustle of carriages and pedestrians, represented Paris's enduring historic core. Now held in the Hungarian National Gallery, the painting exemplifies Pissarro's late achievement: monumental urban subjects captured with the same sensitivity to atmospheric variation he had long applied to rural Normandy.

Sunlight is rendered through warm tones of golden ochre and pale cream, with the Seine reflecting sky in cool blue-grey. Pissarro uses short, overlapping strokes to dissolve the bridge's stone into shimmering atmospheric vibration, while human figures are indicated with quick gestural marks.