The Boulevard, 1910-1911

Gino Severini had moved to Paris in 1906, and The Boulevard epitomises the differences between what he described as “Futurism as conceived in Milan [...] and Futurism as conceived in Montmartre”. (1) It was painted around the same time as Carlo Carrà’s Leaving the Theatre and depicts a similarly nocturnal, wintry cityscape. Yet whilst Carrà continued to employ the Divisionist technique in creating his work, Severini here reveals a familiarity with Cubism, employing its geometric vocabulary to create a fragmented surface that is vividly expressive of movement and bustle. In terms of its subject matter, Severini’s image is also more emphatically ‘Futurist’ than that of Carrà, featuring a red automobile (at the upper left) and a dazzling array of electric streetlights. As the only member of the movement to be based in the French capital, Severini served as something of a foreign correspondent for his Italian colleagues, encouraging them to experiment with Cubist principles.

(1) Gino Severini, The Life of a Painter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 37.