Le Clocher de Bazincourt

Pissarro moved to Eragny-sur-Epte in 1884, a village in the Vexin about 60 kilometres northwest of Paris, and from the rented house he could see the church tower of the next village, Bazincourt, across the fields. He painted it for the rest of his life, in every season and every light. This one is from 1885, the year he met Paul Signac and then Georges Seurat and took up their method of small separated touches of colour. He was 55, the only one of the original Impressionists to follow the younger men into it, and it cost him his dealer's enthusiasm and several years of sales. The Saint Louis Art Museum has had the picture since 1955.