00:26Art of French painter Camille Pissarro cannot be divorced from his politics.
00:32Influenced artistically by the realist painter Gustave Courbet,
00:38Pissarro's paintings dignify the labour of peasants in communal villages,
00:44reflecting the socialist-anarchist political leanings that the two artists shared.
00:50Unlike the Impressionists who lived in Paris, Pissarro chose to live most of his life in the French countryside,
00:58where he received younger artists interested in studying his techniques.
01:04More than any other member of the movement, he is known for the gentle demeanour and passion for experimentation that made him an artistic mentor.
01:14His long-time collaboration with the young Cézanne, for example, made him an indispensable influence on 20th century modernism.
01:24The picture The Louvre Under Snow was created in 1902.
01:30In his older age, Pissarro suffered from a recurring eye infection that prevented him from working outdoors except in warm weather.
01:41As a result of this disability, he began painting outdoor scenes while sitting by the window of hotel rooms.
01:50He often chose hotel rooms on upper levels to get a broader view.
01:56He moved around northern France and painted from hotels in Rouen, Paris, Louvre and Dieppe.
02:04On his visits to London, he would do the same.
02:07The Louvre Under Snow is one of a series of views painted by Pissarro from the apartment.
02:14He took in 1900 at 28 Place Dauphin on the Ile de la Cité in Paris.
02:22Here he is looking west along the river Seine.
02:26The Pont des Arts and the Louvre are seen in the distance.
02:30The railings and steps on the left enclose the 19th century statue of Henry IV.
02:38Currently, the Louvre Under Snow is in the National Gallery in London in England.
02:45Pissarro painted sunlight on the road Pontoise in 1874.
02:51During the 1870s, many of the Impressionist landscape painters went to live in the small towns surrounding Paris.
03:01They painted the ordinary scenes of the nearby countryside with a fresh, direct approach.
03:08Often working outdoors, the balanced composition and cool harmony of blues, greens and creamy yellow give this river view a serene stability.
03:20Typical of the work of Pissarro, a leader in the group and an important mentor to Cézanne and Gauguin.
03:28Nowadays, sunlight on the road Pontoise is located at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in the United States.
03:38Between 1884 and 1888 Pissarro experimented with the pointillist method of the younger Sera for an avowed anarchist.
03:50It was perhaps no great step but in art historical terms.
03:55Pissarro's stylistic shift, however momentary, coincided with the end of Impressionism's avant-garde ascendancy.
04:05Peasants' houses' irony was painted during this fascinating interlude.
04:11Pissarro has fully absorbed the tenets and techniques of the distinctive style.
04:18Form is constructed by discrete juxtaposition of individual strokes or dots of pigment.
04:26Atmosphere is suggested by chromatic scintillation.
04:30Surface is treated as a single unity.
04:33The mechanical effect which can deaden pointillist painting is obviated by Pissarro's acute sense of the internal dynamics of design.
04:44The cast shadows intruding from the right are deliberately naïve.
04:49This was to be an important innovation for the younger generation of post-impressionists such as Gauguin and Cézanne.
04:58At the moment, Peasants' Houses' irony is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
05:28A lot of its own land are literally just a few weeks ago.
05:31But, it has been a long time, it has been a long time for the younger generation of people.
05:34And the new product has been a long time for the younger generation of people.
05:37We've worked in to create a new product that has been reproduced by the younger generation of most years.
05:39We've worked in a specialment with some of the drivers that have been reproduced by a new generation of people.
05:41And that's why we're trying to make such a big difference.
05:46It's very few people, despite the most recent years.
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