The River Oise near Pontoise
Camille Pissarro
French (1830-1903)
1873
Oil on canvas
This painting captures the freshness of the atmosphere and a convincing sense of the light and weather conditions prevailing at a particular time and place -- a stretch of river near Pissarro's home in Pontoise. As such, it is a good example of the innovations that made Pissarro and the other Impressionists distinct from their contemporaries. In addition to their radical technique -- using distinct and visible touches of the brush, relatively unmixed colors, and such -- the Impressionists were also actively trying to paint modern subjects. In this painting Pissarro has included a factory building, with its smokestacks and the smoke that pours from them, as integral parts of the landscape, such as the trees and the clouds that float across the sky.
This work is currently traveling abroad as part of the Clark's international tour.
Related Work: Claude Monet's Cliffs at Etretat, 1885
Related Work: William Bouguereau's Nymphs and Satyr, 1873
