Apples Trees at Pontoise 1872

Camille Pissarro made this pastel drawing, Apple Trees at Pontoise, likely in the 1870s, a period of great change for France and for the institutions that supported its art. The French Academy had long dictated what was aesthetically good, and history painting was at the top of that hierarchy. Pissarro and his Impressionist colleagues upended that value system by painting landscapes and scenes of modern life. Take note of the location of this particular work. The countryside was becoming more accessible to city dwellers with the rise of train travel. A landscape like this offered a temporary escape from the social upheaval that defined modern life. Today, scholars look to exhibition reviews, artists’ letters, and other primary source documents to understand the ways that art like Pissarro’s both reflected and influenced the cultural values of its time.