Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain
The Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris seen through rain from the Hôtel du Louvre — a painting also known for a long restitution dispute.
Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain — at a glance
- Artist
- Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
- Year
- 1897
- Movement
- Impressionism
- Place
- Rue Saint-Honoré at the Place du Théâtre-Français, Paris 1er
- Viewpoint
- An upper window of the Hôtel du Louvre — street, square, theatre and hotel all survive
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 81 × 65 cm
- Now at
- Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Overview
This is one of a group of about fifteen canvases Camille Pissarro painted in 1897–98 from rooms of the Hôtel du Louvre in Paris, looking out over the Avenue de l'Opéra, the Place du Théâtre-Français and the Rue Saint-Honoré. This one shows the street on a wet afternoon: shining grey pavement, carriages, a scatter of dark figures with umbrellas, wet building fronts. It is oil on canvas, about 81 by 65 cm, and it hangs in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Where was Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain painted?
Scholarship The Hôtel du Louvre stands on the Place André-Malraux (then Place du Théâtre-Français), by the Comédie-Française and the Palais-Royal, in the first arrondissement of Paris. Pissarro looked from an upper corner window down the Rue Saint-Honoré. The street, the square, the theatre and the hotel all survive, so the view can be matched closely; only the traffic and shopfronts have changed.
What is in the painting?
The wet street runs back on a diagonal, its pavement and roadway reflecting a grey sky. Horse-drawn cabs and a few carts move along it; pedestrians with umbrellas cross and cluster at the corners. The tall pale buildings on the right carry shop awnings and signs, softened by rain and haze. The whole picture is greys, blue-greys and muted browns, worked in small broken strokes.
Look closely
The reflecting pavement
The rain-wet street and pavement mirror the grey sky, doubling the light.
The umbrellas
Dark figures with umbrellas cross the road and cluster at the corners.
The horse cabs
Horse-drawn cabs move back along the diagonal of the street.
The softened shopfronts
Awnings and signs on the right-hand buildings blur in the rain and haze.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A high oblique view down a rain-wet street, the reflective pavement doubling the light.
Scholarship Pissarro uses the raised, angled viewpoint to run the street sharply back, and lets the wet surfaces mirror the sky so the picture is as much about reflected light as about the buildings. The figures and cabs are quick dark notes in a shimmering grey field.
History & provenance
The painting was owned before the Second World War by the German-Jewish collector Lilly Cassirer, who was forced to give it up when fleeing Nazi Germany. It later entered the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection and, with it, the Spanish state museum; a long legal claim by Cassirer's heirs for its return has been fought in the United States and Spanish courts. It hangs in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Sources
- Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid — collection entry for Camille Pissarro, ‘Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain’ (1897)
- Court records and reporting on Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation
Related paintings
More by Camille Pissarro
Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather
Steamboats in the Port of Rouen
