Pierre Thibault, Watercolor, Montmartre, The Stairs On Rue Lamarck And The Sacré-cœur,

Watercolor on paper, signed “Pierre Thibault” in the lower right corner and titled in pencil in the lower left corner.
The view shows the grand staircase on Lamarck Street from a low angle, rising toward the apse of the Sacré-Cœur. The dome and the small apses stand out in pearl gray against a sky largely washed in blue, while the basilica towers over the bluish slate and red-tiled roofs of the northern slope of the Butte.
The artist brings the scene to life with a few small figures—a walker wearing a hat, cane in hand, in the foreground; two children sitting on the steps; passersby climbing the flight of stairs—rendered with quick brushstrokes that convey the scale and vitality of the neighborhood.
The technique is that of plein air watercolor: transparent washes applied in a single stroke, areas of white on the paper reserved for light on the steps and stone, and dry brushstrokes with a fine brush for the ironwork of the railings, the streetlamp, and the chimneys. The palette remains subdued—tinged grays, muted blues, muted greens, a touch of red on the rooftops—and captures the soft, diffused light of a Parisian day.
Framed under glass in a black frame with gold trim, mounted with a mat.