Camille Pissarro

The Pond at Montfoucault

Montfoucault, Normandy, 1875

Oil on canvas

73.6 x 92.7 cm

The Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro painted this landscape whilst staying at a friend’s farm in Normandy in the autumn of 1875.  The artist called the remote small holding the ‘true countryside’ and he included working figures in many of his views.

Here a woman tends a herd of cows with geese beyond.  Pissarro creates a fine autumnal effect using warm tones heavily worked with a palette knife and brush.  The existence of two preparatory studies, however, suggests that despite the apparently spontaneous handling of paint it was produced in the studio.

Purchased 1955 (No.55.9)