Apprenticeship -- Pissarro: Pissarro

Author: Mu Zi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Throughout his life, Pissarro's artistic style was imbued with a rustic simplicity, as he deeply loved the countryside and rural life. His paintings evolved from rural landscapes to urban street scenes, without significant shifts in subject matter. In his early works, he was heavily influenced by Corot, imitating his color palette, using olive green, orange, and purplish-red as contrasting tones, with light, agile brushwork and expansive vistas. The light in these landscapes often came from the side, giving the scenes a strong sense of volume, as seen in Rue Lefevre (1870). Starting in the 1870s, influenced by the transparent color technique, Pissarro explored Impressionist en plein air painting and devoted himself to the study of light and color, abandoning Corot's muted browns and greys in favor of pure hues from the spectrum. The reflection of sunlight against green shadows enhanced the vibrancy of his colors. His brushstrokes had a sketch-like quality, not merely to depict the forms but also to adjust the light effects, thereby intensifying the visual impact, resulting in a world where forms were blurred yet colors were brilliant. In his later works, influenced by Pointillism, his creations often presented a world where fine brushstrokes rendered vivid light and color but blurred forms. In his later years, he merged Pointillism with the early Impressionist use of color and brushwork, discarding the cool-warm contrasts of Divisionism while preserving the subtle rhythms and harmonies between colors. He boldly used black and white to create light and color contrasts, as seen in Rue Montmartre.