Epping Landscape

Pissarro was the eldest of the Impressionist painters – Cézanne called him "the first Impressionist" – and was the one member who participated in all eight of the official group exhibitions. Among his fellow artists, he was the pre-eminent painter of rural life. In 1884 Pissarro and his family left Pontoise to live in Eragny-sur-Epte, a Normandy village near Gisors. The rustic and pastoral landscape was the ideal setting in which to paint scenes from rural life. At this time, Pissarro had returned to the pointillist technique after meeting the painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1885. A slightly modified pointillism is evident in Epping Landscape, both in the separation of the paint into tiny brushstrokes and in the use of color contrasts.