Péniches à Pontoise

Pontoise was a working town on the Oise river north of Paris, and Pissarro lived there for years, watching barges haul goods down to its busy port. In 1876 he painted several views of them, but this is the only one that pulls right up close, so near that the figure standing on the prow at the left is hard to make out among the loose strokes of orange and green. There is nothing picturesque being tidied up here, just the ordinary commerce of the river, set down as he saw it. The canvas never sold in his lifetime. It stayed in the family and was not shown in public until 1936, more than three decades after his death.