Home/Symbols/Crowd of black-clad pedestriansCrowd of black-clad pedestrians SymbolismCollective motion of modern urban life; anonymity and flux rather than individual portraits.Common ThemesPropaganda & ideologyThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Mortality & transience (memento mori)Seasons & cyclesLeisure & recreationClass & inequalityLabor & workArtworks Featuring This SymbolBoulevard des CapucinesClaude Monet (1873–1874)From a high perch above Paris, Claude Monet turns the Haussmann boulevard into a living current of <strong>light, weather, and motion</strong>. Leafless trees web the view, crowds dissolve into <strong>flickering strokes</strong>, and a sudden <strong>pink cluster of balloons</strong> pierces the cool winter scale <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
