Duranty discussed that in impressionism paintings, there is no central object that dictates a single vantage point for the viewers, and the lines of sight and angles of cornices do not join with mathematical regularity; this gives a sense of momentariness to the painting as if the frame is a snapshot of the real world, which can be seen in this Pissarro’s painting. Duranty describes in his essay that for impressionism arts, viewers’ eyes “relegate to perspectival diminution others in a street crowd”. Therefore, compared to Renaissance painting where objects are at equal distance from each other with a strong sense of symmetry, Duranty believes the new painting allows the viewers to explore the large expanse of the ground and the sky, until they …show more content…
Two buildings are partially cut out by the border of the frame, and the viewers do not know where the water and river banks start or end. Such sense of visual limits resembles a snapshot of the real world, which creates the momentariness of the depicted scene. Duranty explicitly talks about how the new painters try to render “the walk, movement, and hustle and bustle of passersby” and capture the ephemeral, fleeting nature of urban life. Pissarro’s painting show endless motions, as carriages and people are constantly passing through the bridge, the smoke rising to the sky and dissipating, and the water in the river rippling and flowing; the viewers can even imagine people coming out and entering the buildings. Looking deep into the painted street, the darker coloring implies an even more compacted crowd of people, squeezed in the street of this prosperous city. However, all of the movements are captured in a freeze frame. The scene in this second will be different from the scene in the next second. Pissarro’s coarse, chunky brushstroke is a common practice among