The Boulevard

Jean Francois Raffaelli (1850-1924) was a French painter known for the precisely observed scenes of Parisian life that make him one of the most important painters of the Parisian urban scene in the late 19th century. The Boulevard from c. 1900/1905 depicts a Parisian boulevard in the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Raffaelli's best work from the more Impressionist painting of his contemporaries. The c. 1900/1905 date places this in Raffaelli's mature period, when he was producing the precisely observed scenes of Parisian life that are his most accomplished works, and the boulevard subject allows him to exercise his talent for depicting the social types of Parisian urban life.

The Boulevard is important in the history of French urban scene painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that Raffaelli brought to the Parisian boulevard as one of the most important painters of the Parisian urban scene. Raffaelli's precisely observed urban scenes—depicting the social types of Parisian life with the precision of a genre painter and the atmosphere of a city scene painter—represent an important alternative to Impressionist painting, and the c. 1900/1905 painting shows this alternative at its most observant.

The Boulevard is Raffaelli's precisely observed Parisian scene: a boulevard rendered in the atmospheric manner of one of the most important painters of the Parisian urban scene. The c. 1900/1905 painting shows the social types of Parisian life depicted with the precision of a genre painter and the atmosphere of a city scene painter—an alternative to Impressionism.