Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather
The Boieldieu bridge over the Seine at Rouen in the rain, crowded with traffic, smoke over the industrial river.
Boieldieu Bridge
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather — at a glance
- Artist
- Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
- Year
- 1896
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- The Pont Boieldieu over the Seine, Rouen, Normandy
- Viewpoint
- An upper hotel window on the quay — a bridge still crosses here; the war-destroyed bridge and old quays are gone
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 74 × 91 cm
- Now at
- Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Overview
This is one of the Rouen pictures Camille Pissarro painted in 1896 from a hotel window on the Seine quays. It shows the Pont Boieldieu — a road bridge across the river in the centre of Rouen — thronged with carriages, carts, an omnibus and pedestrians in the rain, with the working port below: barges, a steamer, cranes, and smoke and river haze softening the far bank and the buildings behind. It is oil on canvas, about 74 by 91 cm, and it hangs in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Where was Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather painted?
Scholarship The Pont Boieldieu carries a main road over the Seine in the middle of Rouen, the Norman city on the lower river. Pissarro worked from an upper window of the Hôtel d'Angleterre on the quay. A bridge still crosses at this point — the one in the painting was destroyed in the Second World War and replaced — and the port and quays have been repeatedly rebuilt, so the exact structures are gone, but the crossing, the river bend and the general scene remain.
How we know
- Depicts the real Boieldieu bridge in Rouen; 'Seine' is the river.
What is in the painting?
The bridge crosses the middle distance, its deck packed with dark vehicles and figures under a rainy grey light; the wet roadway reflects. Below and beyond, the river is busy with barges and a steamer; cranes and warehouses line the quays; smoke and mist blur the buildings and church towers of the city behind. The palette is greys, browns and smoky blue, in small strokes.
Look closely
The crowded bridge deck
Carriages, carts, an omnibus and pedestrians jam the bridge in the rain, the wet road reflecting.
The working river
Barges, a steamer and cranes fill the Seine and the quays below.
The smoke and haze
Rain and smoke blur the city's buildings and church towers on the far bank.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A high oblique view over a traffic-filled bridge and the working river, softened by rain and smoke.
Scholarship From the raised window Pissarro takes in bridge, river and city at an angle, filling the picture with the movement of a modern port on a wet day and letting the weather blur the distance — one of a series of the same view in different conditions.
History & provenance
The painting is in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Sources
- Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto — collection entry for Camille Pissarro, ‘The Boieldieu Bridge in Rouen, Rainy Weather’ (1896)
- Richard Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, ‘The Impressionist and the City’ (1992)
Related paintings
More by Camille Pissarro
Steamboats in the Port of Rouen
Boulevard Montmartre, Mardi Gras
