A Cowherd at Valhermeil, Auvers-sur-Oise
1874
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
21 5/8 x 36 1/4 in. (54.9 x 92.1 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Edna H. Sachs, 1956
Accession Number
56.182
Tags
Art Historical Context
Camille Pissarro'sA Cowherd at Valhermeil, Auvers-Oise* (1874) invites viewers into the serene French countryside just outside Paris. This oil on canvas, measuring 21⅝ × 36¼ inches, captures a lone cowherd tending animals amid expansive fields and farms under a vast sky. Painted en plein air—a hallmark of the emerging Impressionist movement—Pissarro's loose brushstrokes emphasize the play of natural light and atmospheric effects, rendering the landscape alive with subtle color vibrations. As a founding figure of Impressionism, Pissarro devoted much of his career to rural subjects, drawing fro...
About the Artist
Camille Pissarro · 1831–1903
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) stands as the patriarch of Impressionism, the only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions and a mentor whose influence shaped the trajectory of modern art. Born Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas to a Jewish-Portuguese merchant family, he abandoned the family business to pursue painting, eventually settling in Paris i...