View of Paris from Montmartre

Antonín Chittussi, a distinguished Czech landscape painter, lived and worked in Paris from the beginning of 1879. At the time this gouache was created, he was already residing in the area of new urban development in Paris near Montmartre that was flocked by distinguished painters; this particular view, however, is taken from the nearby studio of his colleague Eugen Jettel. Chittussi produced many cityscapes, including Paris, yet only seldom did he have the ambition to capture a long view of this world metropolis, extending beyond the horizon. In 1887, he made a large oil painting with this theme and its smaller variant that was also done in oil. Although the gouache version of this work reduces the the scene’s wealth of colour, the atmospheric effects of the urban landscape and the sense of the city’s hustle and bustle come fully to the fore. The artist monumentalizes this modern human metropolis and its life with the aid of the traditional chiaroscuro technique (grisaille).