Some critics believe Pissarro’s urban series were painted as celebrations of the modernization of France, in direct contrast with his earlier rural works. This focus on modern urban life can be seen through his portrayal of boulevards, bridges, docks, and other city landmarks. Brettell writes, “In Paris… [Pissarro] was focusing on the new Haussmannian perspectives created in the Avenue de l’Opera, his back turned to the Louvre” (Brettell 5-6), referring to an emphasis on the redesign of Paris during the late 19th century by Baron Haussmann, rather than more traditional Parisian landmarks, like the Louvre. Did Pissarro want to show the new France in all her glory? Brettell goes on to mention that Pissarro later painted the traditional Louvre, which detracts from any argument about Pissarro favoring the new France over the old.
The theme of motion can also suggest the forces of change that drive Paris forward, making Pissarro’s pieces a possible link to modern industrialization in particular. Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro’s great-grandson, summarizes his view of Pissarro’s work, saying, “The cities in Pissarro’s series display themselves as transient spectacles” (Pissarro 267). To Joachim, the transient commotion of Paris gives Pissarro an opportunity to portray the bustling, modern France. Kathleen Adler similarly argues that Pissarro “explored the differences between urban life, all change and movement, and the slower pace and greater continuity of rural life” (Adler 110). While these statements are true about Pissarro’s series, they do not link any of Pissarro’s paintings to any original, new use of the urban landscape. Adler herself associates Pissarro’s paintings to other urban works, remarking that the Paris series show “small, individually insignificant [figures], often little more than the ‘tongue-lickings’ Louis Leroy saw in Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines in 1874. No single figure or group of figures is a center of attraction, instead individuals blur into an apparently random pattern of jostling crowds and traffic” (Adler 109-110). Without the context of the Dreyfus Affair, Adler has reduced Pissarro’s Avenue de l’Opera series to just another Monet painting. This simplified interpretation of Pissarro’s urban series lacks any specific connection to Pissarro or the Avenue de l’Opera itself.
Pictured: Claude Monet, Boulevard des Capucines (1873)