Camille Pissarro

Pissarro established the organizational guidelines that launched the first Impressionist exhibition and served as a mentor to younger artists in the 1870s and 1880s. In this painting, he carefully represents a farmyard near his home outside Paris without calling attention to any single element in the scene. The landscape is threaded by a slender stream that curves along a tree-lined path and separates a cluster of buildings from a pasture where cattle graze. Although tilted toward the foreground, the construction of space suggests measurable, perspectival depth. Pissarro’s craftsman-like technique is visible in his small, tight brushstrokes and the subtle variation of greens and browns that respond to nature’s palette.