1898

Avenue de l'Opéra: Morning Sunshine

Camille Pissarro

French, 1830 - 1903

In the winter of 1897, Pissarro set himself up in Paris. The city offered him new painting subjects and proximity to his doctor for treatment of a persistent eye infection. On December 15 he reported to his family: "I have found a room in the Grand Hôtel du Louvre which has a superb view over the avenue de l’Opéra. . . . It’s going to be beautiful to paint. It is not very aesthetic perhaps, but I am delighted to be able to try to do these Paris streets which are often called ugly, but which are so silvery, so luminous and so lively."

Over the next several months, Pissarro painted fifteen views from his hotel room of the surrounding avenues, documenting the effects of snow, rain, mist, and fog on the city and its inhabitants. Here workers, pushcarts, and omnibuses move about in the early morning, casting pale blue and purple shadows across the peach tones of the pavement.