Camille Pissarro. Avenue de L’Opéra, Rain Effect (1898)

Camille Pissarro

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting

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Avenue de L’Opéra, Rain Effect (1898). Camille Pissarro.
Oil on canvas. 65 cm x 83 cm
Private Collection

Pissarro is one of the most Impressionist painters of Impressionism —with Monet and Sisley, who admired him and considered that his paintings were revolutionary—.

He was one of the founders of the movement and participated in all the exhibitions of the group between 1874 and 1886.

He inherited the concern for painting light —and the atmospheric effects— from the Barbizon School, fundamentally his master, Corot. He also inherited the conviction that painting in the open air was crucial.

He is one of the Impressionists that painted in the open air a lot. Thus, he became a painter of landscapes and rural scenes.

But life sometimes works in mysterious ways, and his most wonderful legacy is his urban Impressionist work that reflects the life of the big modern city at different times and with diverse effects of the climate. For example, the image of this painting was painted under the sun and after a snowfall.

And all this was due to a progressive loss of vision, so he had to move to the city and paint what he observed from the window.

Those painting with urban themes turned the master of the rural landscapes into one of the greatest portrait painters of the modern city. Truly a master as we can find Cézanne, Gauguin and Mary Cassatt among his students.

Pissarro said: “I’m delighted to be able to have a go at Paris’ streets, which are said to be ugly, but are [in fact] so silvery, so bright, so vibrant with life.

The artist, as every artist, lends us his eyes —in this case already sick and tired— to enrich our look so as we can find beauty in unsuspected places.

Recommended links:

In the Mind of Camille Pissarro.

Impressionism.

Impression, Sunrise (1872), Claude Monet.

The First Series of Monet.

Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881), Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

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