Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and in Place du Theatre francais, Sun Effect from 1898 the various elements are painted quickly, as if with a glancing eye over a Parisian square that is bustling with activity.
The people, carriages and horses are sketched with an economy of effort and, as the title suggests, the main concern is the painting of the sunlight that seems to be re-emerging after a rain shower in the evening. The viewpoint is high up in a building and permits a near-panoramic distance that makes the scene purely for the dominating vision of the artist and viewer.
Camille Pissarro’s Place du Theatre francais, Sun Effect is in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade.
I discovered a Pissarro street scene of the Rue De Gros Horloge, painted from outside the famous patisserie Paul down the street. He must have decided the cathedral & clock were too overbearing on even a sunny day and you can see where he has painted them out. He still left the wagon which was in the the sketch and etchings of the street he did earlier, minus the ugly shadowing buildings. He was right, a much nicer painting to have on the wall. I always wondered why Rouen’s most famous street, something he’d spent much time trying to portray, seemingly never saw his brush, but it did.