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Le Village d’Éragny (The Village of Éragny)

Camille Pissarro

1885

Largely self-taught, Camille Pissarro was the only painter to exhibit work in all eight of the Impressionists exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. He knew and painted with the key members of the group, including Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Sisley, and the Pointillist Signac. His work is significant for the balance it maintains between tradition and innovation. his painterly technique was advanced for the time, but he remained committed to classical themes of landscape and rural life.


To escape an expensive and overcrowded Paris, Pissarro and his large family moved to Eragny, a small village of three hundred people The Village of Eragny reflects Pissarro’s interest in celebrating the French countryside. Eragny appears calm and serene in the distance, its church steeply and many rooftops are clearly visible. Smoke can be seen curling upward from a chimney. Rich dark soil in the tilled field shows evidence that man has been working. The artist used tiny strokes of vivid color to indicate the flowers and field in the foreground. Compare these brushstrokes with the swirling brushstrokes used in the pale pinks and yellows of the sun and hazy sky The texture of the paint reveals the labor involved in Pissarro’s technique: brushstrokes heavily overlaid, paint on top of paint. This technique helped to capture the play of light that so fascinated the Impressionists.

  • Titles Le Village d'Éragny (The Village of Éragny) (Proper)
  • Artist Camille Pissarro, French, 1831 - 1903
  • Medium oil on canvas
  • Dimensions 23 1/2 x 28 3/4 in. (59.7 x 73 cm) frame: 32 7/8 × 38 × 4 3/4 in. (83.5 × 96.5 × 12.1 cm)
  • Credit Line Museum purchase with funds provided by the 1980 Museum Dinner and Ball, 1979.353
  • Work Type painting
  • Classification Paintings
  • On View