1883 -1903 · Rouen, Dieppe and Le Havre in the playoffs

From a high window, Pissarro transforms ponds, smoke, docks and tides into atmospheric chronicles where industrial activity changes with each hour.

Ports mainly occupy Camille Pissarro's last decades. In Rouen, he painted steamboats, bridges and quays from rooms or hotels, choosing a high point that allowed circulation and smoke to be distributed and river. In Dieppe, the outer port becomes a scene governed by the afternoon, the sun or the cloud cover. In Le Havre, in 1903, the painter returned to the entrance to the port, the breakwater and the tide from a window, despite vision problems that make outdoor work difficult. The series does not mechanically repeat a pattern: it records what sky, time, water and traffic change in a stable structure. Black vapors, sails, docks and reflections do thus the port has a fully impressionist industrial landscape. The "Ports of Camille Pissarro" selection notably compares Steam Boats in the Port of Rouen and L’Avant-port de Dieppe, afternoon, sun. His reading favors details.

The same basin is never the same at Pissarro, because the real subject is the changing relationship between traffic, tide and light.