Sunset with Fog, Eragny 1891

Camille Pissarro painted this oil on canvas, Sunset with Fog, Eragny, in 1891. The Impressionists like Pissarro were really testing the traditional academic institutions of art. Paintings like this, made in the countryside instead of a studio, were radical at the time. Consider the social context: France in the late 19th century was a nation grappling with industrialization, class divisions, and rapid urbanization. Pissarro’s turn to rural landscapes can be seen as a conscious choice to depict a world apart from the urban chaos, perhaps even commenting on it. The location, Eragny, wasn’t just any village; it was a deliberate choice, allowing Pissarro to engage with the peasant life and rural labor that was rapidly disappearing. How does this compare to work accepted by the establishment? Well, a lot of academic painting glorified war or the aristocracy. To understand Pissarro's work better, one could delve into letters between artists, exhibition reviews, and the writings of contemporary critics. Art is always made in relation to specific social and institutional conditions.