In the last two prolific decades of his life, Pissarro sufferede from a recurring eye infection and was forced to paint inside. But the formula he had discovered in Rouen in 1883 of painting city from the seclusion of an upstais room continued to prove a source of inspiration. Like other members of the Impressionist group, notably Claude Monet, Pissarro took to painting series of single scene in different weather conditions. In 1897 he painted a series of the Boulevard Montmartre from a room in the Grand Hotel de Russie.

The remarkable scope and variety of the Boulevard Montmartre series reveals Pissarro's approach to the systematic exploration of a series of views of the same subject. Focused upon a single compositional device - the magnificent procession of the Boulevard Montmartre - the artist thoroughly investigated the different atmospheric conditions of the street. This variety is illustrated by two distinct determinations - the weather and the activity represented. Thus there are festive afternoons as well as comparatively tranquil ones, sparsely populated streets in winter and conversely busy scenes, as well as a view of the street at night.

Courtesy of www.CamillePissarro.org

Pissarro regarded the whole of this series as a great success and it was probably the precision with which he had rendered a scene charactered by perpetual movement that caused him to remark:

My Avenues are so clear that they would not suffer alongside the paintings of Puvis de Chavannes'. "

Camille Pissarro's Boulevard Montmartre at Night is now considered as the most celebrated night scene created by impressionists, along with The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.