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Camille Pissarro, The Weir at Pontoise, 1872, oil on fabric, 53 x 83 cm (20 7/8 x 32 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, 1990.7.
Source publication
In 1872, Camille Pissarro rendered the water of the Oise River rushing over a low dam with rapid, broken brushstrokes of pure color. Canal barges are moored to the opposite bank, their masts mirroring the young trees that line the bank and lead to the riparian village of Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône in the background. Here the artist depicts aspects of dail...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Pissarro did find inspiration in the modernized riverine environment around the lock, dam, and weir bracketing the Île Saint-Martin, depicting them in a trio of pictures. 28 The artist first approached the subject of the weir in 1868 ( Figure 10). Standing on the riverbank on the Pontoise side, he focused on the spot where the Oise splits into two arms to flow around the island. ...
Context 2
... returned to the subject several years later, in 1872, when he settled again in Pontoise following a stay in London during the Franco-Prussian war (Figure 1). Compared with his earlier attempt, Pissarro employed a brighter palette and a looser handling for his second version. ...
Context 3
... third picture features the dam and lock on the Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône side (Figure 11). Standing again on the opposite bank, Pissarro experimented with a dynamic new composition. ...
Context 4
... This was followed by the demolition of the weir and a large section of the Île Saint-Martin to make way for a newer and more efficient style of dam that was completed in 1913. A general plan for this project (Figure 12) shows in a faint gray outline the weir and shape of the island as Pissarro would have seen it, along with the placement of the proposed dam, and the outline of a smaller, more streamlined version of the island. Due to the required reshaping of the island, these projects were executed much to the dismay of the residents. ...
