Camille Pissarro
In the spring of 1903, months before his death, Pissarro worked from a third-floor room at 19 quai Voltaire for just under two months, painting the Pont Royal, the Pavillon de Flore and the Seine.
Hôtel du Quai Voltaire
Standing, much changed
In, as a customer
A successor, same room
The hotel facing the Louvre across the Seine where Camille Pissarro took a third-floor room in the spring of 1903 and painted the Pont Royal, the Pavillon de Flore and the river — the last series he made in Paris.
- 19 quai Voltaire, 75007 Paris
- Pissarro worked from a room here in the spring of 1903, months before his death
The place, briefly
In the spring of 1903 Camille Pissarro took a room on the third floor of the Hôtel du Quai Voltaire, a few months before he died. He worked there for a little under two months.
The view is one of the best in Paris for a painter with his method: directly across the Seine to the Louvre's Pavillon de Flore, with the Pont Royal crossing the river in the middle distance and the quays running out on both sides. He painted the bridge, the pavilion, the water and the traffic on it, in the same repeating way he had used at the place Dauphine and on the rue de Rivoli.
It is the last of the window series. Pissarro died in November 1903, having spent the final six years of his life renting rooms across Paris and painting the city from behind glass — a body of work that only reads as a limitation until you see how much of the city he got through.
The hotel is still there and still open, reopened in 2025 after a full renovation. The rooms are new; the view is not.
Key facts
- Spring 1903, months before his death
- Third floor, occupied for just under two months
- The Pont Royal, the Pavillon de Flore, the Seine and the Louvre
- The last of his Paris window series
- Still a working hotel; reopened March 2025 after renovation
- A hotel — bookable
Timeline
Pissarro works from a third-floor room in the spring, painting the Pont Royal and the Louvre.
He dies in November.
The hotel reopens in March after a full renovation.
On the map
Questions before you go
What was Pissarro's last Paris series?
The views of the Pont Royal, the Pavillon de Flore and the Seine, painted from a third-floor room at the Hôtel du Quai Voltaire in the spring of 1903. He died that November.
Can you stay there?
Yes. The hotel is still at 19 quai Voltaire and reopened in March 2025 after renovation. The interiors are modern; the river view is the historic feature.
People who knew this place
Within walking distance
Black Sun Press (19 Rue de Lille)
The Paris town house of Harry and Caresse Crosby, and the address of the Black Sun Press, which published D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Hemingway and Hart Crane in editions made to be beautiful rather than to sell.
Visit the placeSennelier, 3 quai Voltaire
The artists' colourman opened by Gustave Sennelier on the quai Voltaire in 1887, opposite the Louvre — still trading, still grinding pigment, and still looking very much as it did.
Visit the place
Pont du Carrousel
The crossing from the Louvre to the rue des Saints-Pères: an 1834 iron bridge replaced by a stone one in 1939, with distinctive telescoping streetlamps designed to rise after dark.
Visit the place
Hôtel Verneuil
The Left Bank hotel where James Baldwin settled after arriving in Paris in November 1948, and where his first published essays were written.
Visit the placeThe Friday Letter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.