Late Impressionism

Camille Pissarro

The Artist's Garden at Eragny

1898

Oil on canvas, 73.4 × 92.1 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington

The vegetable and flower beds of Pissarro's garden at Eragny, with a woman bent over her work. Like Monet, Pissarro in his last years kept returning to the ground around his own home.

• Small spots of yellow, pink, coral and red scatter across the greens and browns. Laying color in separate touches like this was a basic Impressionist method.
• Pissarro lived at Eragny, northwest of Paris, from 1884 until his death in 1903.
• An eye infection troubled him outdoors, so he often painted from his windows.
• Look at the bending woman, shown with only a few strokes.
• Ailsa Mellon Bruce bought it in 1965, and her bequest brought it to the National Gallery in 1970.

Julie Pissarro came from the countryside, and the household lived close to the land. Vegetable beds, an orchard and a meadow lay beside the house.

Image: National Gallery of Art Open Access · CC0