Street · Opéra (9th) · 9e arrondissement

Rue Halévy

The buildingStill standing

Getting inWalk straight in

What's there nowStill the same

A public street beside the Palais Garnier, inside the protected architectural zone around the opera house — which is why it still reads as it did in 1878.

The short street running beside the Palais Garnier that Gustave Caillebotte painted in 1878, looking down from an upper window at the traffic and pedestrians below.

Address: rue Halévy, 75009 Paris
Years: Cut during the Haussmann rebuilding around the new opera house

The place, briefly

The rue Halévy was cut as part of the rebuilding around the new opera house, and it runs along the flank of the Palais Garnier. Gustave Caillebotte painted it in 1878 from an upper-floor window — the same steep downward look he had used on the boulevard Haussmann, turning the street into a diagonal band of roofs, awnings and small figures.

It is a good example of what separates him from the other Impressionists. Monet or Pissarro paint a boulevard as weather and light; Caillebotte paints it as geometry and social observation, from a height, with the perspective doing the argument.

Because the street sits inside the protected zone around the opera house, its buildings and proportions have been preserved unusually well. The view is recognisable.

Key facts

Where: Alongside the Palais Garnier, 9th arrondissement
The painting: Rue Halévy, seen from a balcony, 1878
The angle: Steeply downward from an upper window, as on the boulevard Haussmann
Condition: Well preserved inside the protected zone around the opera house
Access: A public street — walk it

Timeline

1878
Caillebotte paints the rue Halévy from an upper-floor window.

On the map

Questions before you go

Can you still see Caillebotte's view of the rue Halévy?

From street level, yes — the buildings and proportions survive because the street lies inside the protected architectural zone around the Palais Garnier. The painting's vantage was an upper-floor window, which is private.

People who knew this place

Gustave Caillebotte

French · Painter

Caillebotte painted the rue Halevy in 1878 from an upper-floor window, using the same steep downward angle as his boulevard Haussmann views.

Within walking distance

Apartment · Chaussée-d'Antin (9th)

31 boulevard Haussmann

The sixth-floor apartment Gustave Caillebotte shared with his brother Martial after their mother's death — and the balcony from which he painted the boulevard looking almost straight down.

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Theatre · Opéra

Palais Garnier

The Paris opera house — Charles Garnier's Second Empire palace on the place de l'Opéra, inaugurated on 5 January 1875 and the home of the Paris Opera ever since.

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Office · Opéra

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Café · Grands Boulevards

Café Napolitain

The boulevard terrace where the novel opens — an apéritif on the Right Bank, watching the evening crowd, the electric signs, and the last horse-cabs go by.

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The 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.