Wooded Landscape at L'Hermitage, Pontoise

Paul Cézanne walked an hour to Pontoise to paint this view with Camille Pissarro, whom he felt "was a man to be consulted, rather like God." The two friends set up their easels side-by-side overlooking a cluster of red- and blue-roofed houses near Pissarro's home. Pissarro's brushwork is rapid and delicate, whereas Cézanne used a palette knife to apply color in geometric patches, largely blocking the sky (see below). While Cézanne reduced the landscape to horizontals and verticals that repeat the architectural forms of houses, Pissarro focused on the natural shapes of the trees and added a figure.

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas S. Pickard