Painters' Views

Caillebotte at Pont de l'Europe

Painted 1876. The cast-iron bridge over the Saint-Lazare train tracks, with its X-pattern girders, was new when Caillebotte painted it — a symbol of the modern industrial city. The bridge has been rebuilt but the cast-iron pattern is faithful to the original.

Stand on the south-east corner of the bridge, looking down toward the tracks — that's the Caillebotte angle. The original painting is at the Musée d'Orsay, ten minutes' walk south.

→Walk south to Gare Saint-Lazare main concourse, ~5 min. Or just descend the staircase from the bridge directly into the station's western platforms.

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Monet at Gare Saint-Lazare

Twelve paintings of the train sheds and steam, executed 1877 from inside the station. Monet got special permission and a private steam-train demonstration to study the light and smoke. Several of the canvases are at the Musée d'Orsay; one is at the Met in New York.

Walk into the western train hall (track 27 area) and look up at the iron-and-glass roof — the Monet structure, still intact. Most travellers rush through; pause for two minutes and the resemblance is unmistakable.

Verified nearby ·Lazare3 min

→Métro Saint-Lazare (line 13) → Liège (one stop), or walk east. Boulevard Haussmann is two blocks south. Walk east on Boulevard Haussmann to no. 1 (Pissarro's stop) — about 15 min on foot, mostly through the grands magasins.

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Pissarro at Boulevard Montmartre

Camille Pissarro spent winter 1897 in room 9 of the Grand Hôtel de Russie, on the corner of Boulevard Montmartre and Rue Drouot, painting fourteen canvases of the boulevard from the window — the same view at different times of day, in different weather, a series most museums now own one of.

Stand on the south side of Boulevard Montmartre between Rue Drouot and Rue Vivienne, looking east. The hotel building is no. 1 Boulevard Montmartre — now offices, but the third-floor windows are the painting's vantage. The Passage des Panoramas entrance is right next to it.

Verified nearby ·Passage des Panoramas1 minHôtel Chopin1 min

→Walk east along Boulevard Montmartre, then turn left up Rue Richer ~10 min total to Folies-Bergère at no. 32.

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Manet at the Folies-Bergère

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Manet's last major painting — the barmaid Suzon at the marble counter, the mirror behind her reflecting the audience and chandeliers. The original is at the Courtauld in London. The cabaret has operated continuously at 32 Rue Richer since 1869.

The famous bar from the painting was on the upper-balcony level, not the ground floor. The exterior — with its 1929 Art Deco facade — is what's visible from the street; the interior renovation has changed the bar's exact location but the cabaret still operates nightly.

Verified nearby ·Passage Verdeau2 minBouillon Chartier (Grands Boulevards)2 min

→Métro Cadet (line 7) → Pigalle (line 2 transfer at La Fourche)... or simpler: walk north up Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre to Métro Le Peletier (line 7), south one stop, transfer. Easiest: bus 67 directly to Pigalle. Tanguy's old shop is one block east of Métro Saint-Georges.

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Van Gogh at Père Tanguy

14 Rue Clauzel. Julien Tanguy ran a colour-supplies shop here in the 1880s and gave struggling painters credit on materials in exchange for paintings. Van Gogh painted three portraits of Tanguy, two of them in front of a wall covered in Japanese prints. The shop is gone but the building survives.

There's a small plaque on the building. The street is quiet and residential — visit, look up at the second-floor windows, then walk on. Don't expect a museum; this is a five-minute pilgrimage stop.

Verified nearby ·Buvette4 minLe Pantruche4 min

→Walk up to Pigalle (10 min) and take Funicular or stairs up to the basilica. Or: Métro Saint-Georges (line 12) → Pigalle, transfer to line 2, one stop to Blanche. Moulin Rouge is at the Blanche exit.

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Toulouse-Lautrec at Moulin Rouge

Toulouse-Lautrec painted his Moulin Rouge series 1892–1895, capturing dancers like La Goulue and Jane Avril. The paintings are in museums worldwide; the lithograph posters he made for the cabaret are in the BNF. The cabaret itself has rebuilt twice but kept its windmill silhouette.

Stand on Boulevard de Clichy in front of the Moulin Rouge for the iconic-poster angle. Inside, the show is descended from the cabaret of his time but is now firmly tourist; the exterior is the painting's content.

Verified nearby ·Maison Souquet2 minCimetière de Montmartre3 min

→Walk east on Rue Lepic, then up the steep Rue Tholozé to Rue Cortot — ~15 min uphill, the Renoir route exactly. The Musée de Montmartre is at no. 12.

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Renoir at Bal du moulin de la Galette

Renoir's 1876 painting of a Sunday-afternoon dance at the open-air ballroom of the Moulin de la Galette — dappled light, blue-and-white checked tablecloths, dancers, cake. The site, on Rue Cortot, is now part of the Musée de Montmartre; the actual ballroom courtyard survives.

Buy a museum ticket — it includes the Jardins Renoir (the gardens behind the museum, where the ballroom's courtyard was). Renoir lived in this exact building 1876–1877 while painting the work. The original is at the Musée d'Orsay.

Verified nearby ·Musée de Montmartre — Jardins Renoir2 minSoul Kitchen2 min

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