La Ruelle des Poulies à Pontoise

Artists of the Impressionist movement, which began in France in the late 19th century, typically painted landscapes and scenes of modern life. Through the use of pure colors and loose brushstrokes, they demonstrated the momentary effects of light, atmosphere, and movement. Camille Pissarro, one of the first Impressionist painters, grew up on the island of St. Thomas in the French West Indies. In 1855 he moved to Paris, where he studied only briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts because he disliked the inflexible and rigid approach of the school. Eventually Pissarro sought instruction outside the classroom and was greatly influenced by Camille Corot, who taught him to seek beauty in modest landscapes. He followed Corot’s dictum of painting en plein air (out of doors), depicting one’s visual experiences, and rendering the effects of light and climate. Like many of his contemporaries, Pissarro left Paris for the countryside in 1855.

From 1866 to 1882 the painter lived and worked in Pontoise, a small town outside of Paris. Away from the city, he experimented painting en plein air, creating some of his best-known works–serene scenes, like this one, where the true subject is the impression of the time of day or the season. Using flat planes of color and the effects of light, he defined the volume of the buildings and, through comma-like brushstrokes, created the richly textured leaves and grasses. This painting is characterized by a light palette that the artist used from 1870 until 1880, including the yellow greens of the foliage and vegetation, the pale blue of the sky, the gray of the buildings and smoke, and the buff and beige of the soil, the tree trunks, and the path. An implied arc, the walking trail leads the viewer’s eye to the two strolling figures and then around to the cityscape. In portraying the extensive site of Pontoise, Pissarro contrasts the open natural environment of the countryside with the town’s solid mass of geometric buildings and industrial smokestacks. Through this juxtaposition, the artist alludes to the encroaching Industrial Revolution and the dramatic changes it made on the French landscape.