Details

Title

Snowscape with Cows at Montfoucault

Artist/Maker

Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903)

Date

1874

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

18 3/4 x 20 1/4 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from Helen C. Griffith to honor Robert Sherrill Griffith, Jr. and from Joan N. Whitcomb in memory of Taylor Stuckey

Accession #

2007.128

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 207

Camille Pissarro’s Snowscape with Cows at Montfoucault depicts the home of fellow artist Ludovic Piette. His limited tonal palette of whites, grays, and greens conveys the stillness of a cold winter day to great effect. The thick application of white paint gives a tangible sense of heavy snow weighing down the barren tree boughs. Pissarro often idealized peasants and portrayed them with dignity in a subtle rebuke of capitalism. The laborers’ muted blue costumes add to the scene’s harmony.