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Camille Pissarro, 'Late Afternoon in our Meadow', 1887

Key facts
Full title Late Afternoon in our Meadow
Artist Camille Pissarro
Artist dates 1830 - 1903
Date made 1887
Medium and support oil on canvas
Dimensions 54 × 65 cm
Inscription summary signed; dated
Acquisition credit Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government (under a hybrid arrangement) from the collection of William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, and allocated to the National Gallery, with the support of a generous legacy from James Francis George Wilson, 2020
Inventory number NG6689
Location Room 43
Collection Main Collection
Late Afternoon in our Meadow
Camille Pissarro
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In 1884 Pissarro settled with his family in the village of Eragny. He painted a number of views of this meadow which is planted with small trees still surrounded by their protective cages. It is late afternoon and the long shadows thrown by the trees radiate out in a fan shape towards the left corner. A solitary figure stands in the sun, a basket in one hand, the other on her hip.

In 1885 Pissarro met Georges Seurat and subsequently adopted his pointillist technique of applying small dots of colour alongside each other to create an optical mixture. Here he has enlivened the underlying green of the grass with small touches of pink and yellow, while using blue, mauve and the odd touch of orange in the shadowed areas. In the trees, he has painted the foliage with strong vertical brushstrokes. The creams, yellows and blues of the densely applied brushstrokes in the sky reinforce the pervading atmosphere of shimmering light.

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