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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
IllustrationBright present-day view of pedestrians on Rue Halévy beside the opera house

A close present-day color view preserving the street's real Haussmann and opera-house geometry.

Editorial illustration

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

In images

Rue Halévy today, with the preserved east flank of the Palais Garnier on the right.Editorial illustration
A close present-day color view preserving the street's real Haussmann and opera-house geometry.Editorial illustration
Historically informed street-level reconstruction of Rue Halévy around the time Caillebotte painted it.Artistic reconstruction
The documented opera pavilion and street fabric in natural color, from a viewpoint distinct from Caillebotte's paintings.Artistic reconstruction
The ornate east pavilion, balustrades and bronze lamps seen close from Rue Halévy.Editorial illustration
The short preserved street wall opposite the opera, populated with newly generated pedestrians.Editorial illustration
An interpretive reconstruction of late-1870s daily traffic beside the newly completed Palais Garnier.Artistic reconstruction

Timeline

  1. 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

Illustrated portrait of Gustave Caillebotte

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

Color present-day view of 31 boulevard Haussmann

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.

Visit the place
Present-day color view of the Palais Garnier façade in bright daylight with visitors on the place de l'Opéra

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.

Visit the place
Present-day color view of the surviving honey-stone corner building at 11 rue Scribe under a blue sky, with the Nespresso boutique at street level

Office · Opéra

American Express Office at Opéra

The office by the Opéra where American expatriates collected their mail and cashed their cheques, and where David goes to escape Giovanni's room in Baldwin's novel.

Visit the place
The Café Napolitain in soft evening light, empty chairs in ranks beneath the awning and the Haussmann façade above

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.

Visit the place
References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Rue Halévy, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye — National Gallery of Art

    Website
    National Gallery of Art, Washington
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Rue Halévy page.

    View source

  2. 2Caillebotte, peintre et jardinier — dossier pédagogique, Musée des impressionnismes Giverny

    Website
    Musée des impressionnismes Giverny
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Rue Halévy page.

    View source

  1. 3Paris Street; Rainy Day (Gustave Caillebotte) — Art Institute of Chicago

    Website
    Art Institute of Chicago
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Rue Halévy page.

    View source

  2. 4Gustave Caillebotte — Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Website
    Encyclopaedia Britannica
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Rue Halévy page.

    View source
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Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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