The Garden of Les Mathurins at Pontoise (Le Jardin des Mathurins), 1876. Camille Pissarro. Oil on canvas. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust.
This painting is exceptional among Camille Pissarro’s works in its monumental scale and depiction of middle-class life. Maria Deraismes, an important literary and social figure, strolls through the garden of Les Mathurins, the residence she rented near Pissarro’s home in Pontoise, a village northwest of Paris. She approaches a silvered glass ball on a tripod, a decoration that produces distorted reflections.
Pissarro experimented with cutting-edge color theory in the bright, strong colors of the flowers. By juxtaposing the complementary colors red and green, he increased the overall vibrancy of the hues.
