There's something about the compulsive artist's penchant for painting the same subject over and over again in different light and in different seasons, ad nauseum, that's very appealing to me. Monet was the master of this, creating no less than 25 canvases of haystacks in less than a year and more than 30 of Rouen Cathedral. But by far, he wasn't the only artist to relentlessly work a subject. There are countless artists known for their need to wring every nuance from a location, an object or a portrait subject, but one of those not necessarily known for this is Pissarro. Granted, he returned again and again to a broader subject, especially in his etchings of peasants, and though he often painted the same scenes from various angles, he's generally not known for painting the same location again and again, from the same vantage point and identical except for the light, the weather or the seasons. But when he was diagnosed with a chronic infection of the tear duct, he was no longer able to paint outdoors on location due to wind and dust, and so spent most of his time painting landscapes and cityscapes from indoors looking out through the windows. While in a Paris hotel in 1897 and 1898, among the numerous works he completed of the city, he painted multiple canvases of Montmartre from the exact same vantage point in every season in all weathers: sunlight, rain, fog, and at all hours of the day and night. Most critics believe that these Paris works are among his most brilliant and well-executed and I would have to agree. While not a huge fan of Camille Pissarro's works, these are truly breathtaking and like Monet's many series of nearly identical works, these thrill me simply for their relentless consistency.
Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897
Boulevard Montmartre Au Printemps, 1897
Boulevard Montmartre La Nuit, 1898
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