The Louvre, Morning 1903

This small painting was made by Camille Pissarro, likely in the late 1800s, using oil on canvas. I find it interesting how Pissarro embraces a kind of all-overness in his application of paint, where no one part of the image is more or less important. Looking closely, you can see how the surface is built from countless small dabs and dashes of thick paint. Notice how the light reflecting from the river, the stone arches of the bridge, the trees and their spindly branches, and the architecture of the Louvre, are all given a similar treatment. In the lower-left corner, the earthy browns and yellows coalesce into a kind of abstract passage that only gradually resolves itself into the edge of the riverbank. It feels like the real subject of the painting is not the place so much as the process of seeing. Pissarro reminds me a bit of Philip Guston, who also developed a way of painting that seemed to be constantly in the process of becoming. Art is an ongoing conversation, full of questions and explorations.