L’Île Lacroix, Rouen 

Camille Pissarro painted this scene in Rouen using oil paints and small, deliberate brushstrokes. These marks create a shimmering effect, evoking the damp atmosphere of the industrial port. Factories and their belching smokestacks appear across the water, painted with the same care as the natural elements. Pissarro embraced the techniques of pointillism, applying paint in a calculated way to achieve a harmonious effect. The work involved must have been considerable, requiring patience and precision. Yet, it’s important to remember that the very subject of the painting – the factories, the boats, and the distant figures – represents human labor as well. Pissarro doesn’t shy away from depicting the realities of his time, where industrial progress and natural beauty coexisted, sometimes uneasily. Looking at this painting, you can appreciate how its meaning emerges not only from the scene it depicts, but also from the materiality of paint, and the process-intensive techniques used to create it.