1866 -1883 · Oise Valley and impressionist laboratory

In Pontoise, Camille Pissarro paints hillside, garden, orchard and railway without idealizing the countryside: the landscape becomes a lived, worked and constantly observed space.

Camille Pissarro discovered Pontoise in the 1860s and resided there for a long time between 1866 and 1883, with interruptions due in particular to the war of 1870. The city, located northwest of Paris, offers a complex geography: Oise valley, hillsides of the Hermitage, roads, gardens, quarries, fields and new railway infrastructures. Pissarro is not looking for a spectacular site. He returns to the same paths according to the seasons, hours and agricultural work, observing the relationship between village, culture and modernization. The Colline de Jalais did not look for a spectacular site. He returns to the same paths according to the seasons, hours and agricultural work, observing the relationship between village, culture and modernization. The Colline de Jalais affirmed a solid construction of the landscape in 1867. In 1867, Paul Cézanne came to work alongside him; their exchanges are decisive for the evolution of the two painters. Pissarro gradually lightens its touch while retaining the framework of the land. Pontoise thus becomes a true open-air workshop, where impressionism is built from duration, movement and constant attention to ordinary rural life. The "Pontoise by Camille Pissarro" selection notably compares Colline de Jalais, Pontoise and Le Jardin public à Pontoise. His reading favors the story.

Pissarro is not looking for a famous panorama in Pontoise: he turns a familiar path into a different world with each return.