Boulevard des Capucines, 1873-1874. Claude Monet. Oil on canvas. Purchase: the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation Acquisition Fund.
Claude Monet captured the dramatic, plunging view of the bustling street of the fashionable Boulevard des Capucines as seen from the second-floor window of the famous photographer Nadar’s apartment.
Monet’s Boulevard embodies the hallmarks of classic Impressionism: modern, urban subject matter; bright, pastel hues; flickering, broken brushwork that suggests dynamic movement; attention to the effects of light and atmosphere; and a sketch-like painting presented as a finished picture. The overall effect of energy and movement found some admirers when a similar version was shown at the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. Others were shocked by the blurry, imprecise forms dubbed by one writer as “black tongue-lickings.”
