In the end, Pissarro’s paintings mask a commentary that critics miss because of its subtle nature. However, by dismissing Pissarro’s urban series as devoid of political meaning critics ignore the subtleties of the Avenue of de l’Opera. The symbolism in the movement of Pissarro’s urban series traces his views on the Dreyfus Affair as it unfolded in front of him with his motif of urban energy and movement. The concept of commotion appears again and again through Pissarro’s portrayal of the Avenue de l’Opera as a commentary on the French populace’s political commotion. Pissarro died in 1903 (Brettell xiii), a full century before Dreyfus was finally declared innocent in 1995 (Derfler xxii), but his views of the Dreyfus Affair live on through his Avenue de l’Opera snapshots. Pissarro himself declared to Lucien, “I firmly believe that something of our ideas, born as they are of the anarchist philosophy, passes into our works, which are thus antipathetic to the current trend” (qtd. Shikes 226). Pissarro’s anarchist philosophy certainly passed into his portrayals of the Avenue de l’Opera, but its camouflaged message evaded art historians and most likely, its target audience of Frenchmen during the Dreyfus Affair. Pissarro’s movement motif and quiet declaration of his political views has gone unnoticed in his series – until now.
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