Artwork
Haymaking at Éragny
Haymaking at Éragny is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. It dates from 1896 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1896, *Haymaking at Éragna* is an oil painting by Camille Pissarro, a French artist who worked across Impressionism and later Neo‑Impressionism. The work belongs to the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and portrays a quiet agrarian landscape centered on the activity of cutting hay.
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents a dry field dotted with a few scattered trees and a line of taller trunks in the distance. Two diminutive figures—one near the foreground trees and another nearer the centre—stand apart, emphasizing the vastness of the countryside and the solitary rhythm of rural labor.
Technique & Style
Pissarro applies the paint with a pronounced impasto, giving the surface a tactile, textured quality. The palette is restrained, dominated by muted greens, earthy browns and a soft, pale sky. The brushwork is thick and expressive, reinforcing the physicality of the landscape while retaining the observational clarity associated with his later period.
History & Provenance
After its completion, the painting entered the public domain through acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains on display. Its presence in a major American museum reflects Pissarro’s international reputation and the continued interest in his late rural scenes.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( piss-AR-oh; French: ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the…
