The Carrousel, Grey Weather

The Carrousel, Grey Weather (1900) is a late oil painting by Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) that captures the Place du Carrousel in Paris under an overcast sky, a subject reflecting his sustained interest in modern urban life.^[3][5] Executed when the artist was 70 and working in a mature Impressionist idiom, the work belongs to the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.^[3][5]

Provenance: the National Gallery of Art collection

The painting entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art, where it is recorded as an oil on canvas dated 1900.^[3][5] The verified catalogue gives its dimensions as 54.9 × 65.4 cm.^[3] No earlier ownership chain is documented in the available sources, and the work is not listed among the paintings whose provenance is traced through the artist's dealer Durand-Ruel in the late 1890s.^[4]

Subject and iconography: the Place du Carrousel in grey weather

The title identifies the location as the Place du Carrousel, the public square between the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.^[3] Pissarro's decision to depict this site in grey weather aligns with his broader practice of painting Parisian boulevards and squares under varied atmospheric conditions, as seen in The Place du Havre, Paris (1893), which shows a similar urban thoroughfare with carriages and pedestrians.^[4] The muted palette and overcast sky emphasize the fleeting effects of light and weather that were central to Impressionist practice.^[1]

Technique: late Impressionist oil painting

The work is executed in oil on canvas, the medium Pissarro used throughout his career.^[5] By 1900, Pissarro had moved beyond the Neo-Impressionist pointillist technique he had adopted in the mid-1880s under the influence of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, returning to a looser, more atmospheric brushwork.^[1] The grey-weather subject allowed him to explore subtle tonal harmonies and the diffusion of light, concerns that art historian John Rewald recognized when he called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters".^[1]

Artist context: Pissarro's late urban views

Born on the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies on 10 July 1830, Pissarro became a central figure in the Impressionist movement, helping to establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists in 1873.^[1] His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.^[1] In his later years, Pissarro painted a celebrated series of Parisian cityscapes from hotel windows, of which The Carrousel, Grey Weather is a late example.^[1] The painting's date of 1900 places it three years before the artist's death on 13 November 1903.^[1]

Related works: Pissarro's Parisian series

The painting belongs to a group of urban views Pissarro produced in the 1890s and 1900s. The Place du Havre, Paris (1893), now in the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts a comparable scene of a busy Parisian square with horse-drawn traffic, and its provenance is documented through the artist to the dealer Durand-Ruel and then to Potter Palmer of Chicago.^[4] Both works share a compositional interest in the diagonal recession of streets and the animation of carriages and figures, though the 1900 canvas is distinguished by its grey-weather atmosphere.^[3][4]

Frequently asked questions

When was The Carrousel, Grey Weather painted?

The painting is dated 1900, according to the National Gallery of Art's catalogue record.^[3][5]

Where is the painting located today?

The work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.^[3][5]

What does the title refer to?

The title refers to the Place du Carrousel in Paris, a public square near the Louvre, depicted under grey, overcast weather.^[3]