La piazza del Théâtre-Français

By 1898 Camille Pissarro was in his late sixties and his eyes were failing him. A recurring eye infection made working outdoors in wind and dust painful, so the oldest of the Impressionists took rooms in Paris hotels and painted the city from the window. He had spent decades out in the fields painting peasants and country lanes. From the Grand Hotel du Louvre he now looked down on this square where it opens into the avenue de l'Opera, tracking the same crowd of carriages and tiny hurrying figures as the seasons turned and the light shifted through the day. He painted the view about 15 times from that one window.