6. Camille Pissarro, French, 1830-1903. Le Fond de L'Hermitage, Pontoise (The Backwoods of L'Hermitage, Pontoise), 1879. Oil on canvas, 126 x 162 cm. Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1951.356

Camille Pissarro painted this work in Pontoise, a rural community near Paris where the artist painted hundreds of works over many years. In this painting, Pissarro created a screen of trees and foliage that acts as a partial barrier between the viewer and the white buildings that hint of civilization in the distance. The influence of Claude Monet's short, quick brushwork is evident. The sleeping figure is represented by quick and sketchy strokes of blue and is barely visible amidst the foliage. The flickering light effects created by sunlight streaming through the forest are captured by Pissarro's rapid brush strokes.

Born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, in 1830, Pissaro was about ten years older than most of the other members of the impressionist group. His father ran a successful business on the island, and it was perhaps rebellion against his family's upper-middle-class values that led Pissarro to decide at a young age to become an artist. Before moving to Paris in 1855, he ran away to Venezuela for a short time to devote himself to studying art. In Venezuela, he began to paint landscapes and rural subjects, themes on which he would focus for the rest of his career. Pissarro struggled for many years to find his way as an artist. Not self-taught as once thought, he studied drawing as a youth, and painting with the Danish artist Anton Melbye (1818-1875) in the Virgin Islands and later with the renowned French landscape painter Camille Corot (1796-1875). Pissarro came to know Monet in the 1850s and in the following years associated with many of the younger generation of landscape painters. He was a mentor to many of them, including Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. Not only did Pissarro teach his students the impressionist style, but he experimented with their new styles as well. Mary Cassatt once remarked that Pissarro was a "great teacher who could have taught the stones to draw correctly." One of the original members of the impressionist group, Pissarro was the only artist to exhibit in all eight of its exhibitions.

Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs

© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art