Quai du Pothuis, Pontoise

In 1868 Pontoise was a small market town on the Oise, northwest of Paris, and it was changing. A railway bridge across the river now put the capital a little over an hour away by train, which is part of why Pissarro had moved his family here at the end of 1866. He set up on the Quai du Pothuis, the riverside street, looking toward the bridge. Beyond it, a tall, thin chimney rises well above the trees and trails grey smoke into a bright sky. That was the town's new gas works, and he gave it a prominent place in a view that could easily have left it out. The people on the quay sort themselves almost like a cross-section of the town. A well-dressed family strolls through the middle of the picture, while a group of workmen stand at the railing on the left.