Les moulins de la butte, Montmartre

The present painting is one of at least three works by Rousseau depicting the moulins and plaine of Montmartre; one is in the collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the other is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay (fig. 1). Both of these other works date to the middle years of the 1840s, and the present work is presumably of a similar date. In all three works, the artist has evenly divided the composition between landscape and sky, dramatically silhouetting the iconic moulins, which would be made famous by the next generation of artists, atop the crest of the hill. Hay wagons traversing the sunlit plaine similarly define the middle ground of all three compositions, while the buildings visible in the background presage the rapidly encroaching urban development of this soon-to-be-former suburb.
We are grateful to Galerie Brame & Lorenceau for confirming the authenticity of this work. The work is included in their Théodore Rousseau archives.