Rue de l'Épicerie, Rouen (effetto di sole)

By 1898 Pissarro was almost 70 and a recurring eye infection kept him from working outdoors for long, so he took rooms with a view and painted the street below through the glass. In Rouen he found a window over the Friday market on the Place de la Haute-Vieille-Tour and wrote to his son that it was an excellent spot. He painted the crooked medieval lane three times. This is the only version with the market actually in full swing, the square packed with stalls and shoppers under a raking morning light. The Gothic house fronts leaning over the street were already centuries old when he set up his easel indoors.