Rabbit Warren at Pontoise, Snow

Notes from the museum

Along with Impressionist painters Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley , Camille Pissarro pursued the theme of snow throughout his career, producing nearly 100 “snow” paintings. In 1879 France experienced an extraordinarily severe winter, which Pissarro explored in this and other works painted at his home in Pontoise, 30 miles west of Paris, along the Seine River. In Rabbit Warren, snow covers the ground, houses, and vegetation in a frothy coat that resulted from the artist’s vigorous brushwork. Throughout, small spots of color in the chimneys, greenish shrubs, and clothing of the man at right punctuate what is otherwise a predominately yellowish white and uninhabited fragment of nature.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Camille Pissarro

Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas. His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro studied from great forerunners, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. He later studied and worked alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac when he took on the Neo-Impressionist style at the age of 54.

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