Montmartre et Sacré Coeur

Jean Dufy

Dufy depicts a sunny afternoon in Montmartre with a view of the famous Sacre-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) in the mid-ground. Known for his renderings of Parisian life and city scenes, this large color lithograph is emblematic of the artist’s style: colorful, energetic, expressive, and distinctly modern for its time, the artist’s love of his adopted home is laid bare on the paper.

The commanding Romano-Byzantine basilica is seen as both a Catholic place of worship and a symbol of penance for the fall of France in the Franco-Prussian war - though in more recent times it has been lauded as a symbol of working-class French rebellion, owing to its position on the highest peak of Montmartre, which at the time was a Socialist commune and the fiercest holdout during that samesaid war.