Wooded Landscape at L'Hermitage, Pontoise

1879

Wooded Landscape at L'Hermitage, Pontoise, 1879. Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903). Softground, aquatint, and drypoint; platemark: 21.9 x 26.9 cm (8 5/8 x 10 9/16 in.); overall: 26.9 x 35.6 cm (10 9/16 x 14 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 2004.105 Camille Pissarro depicted this view of Pontoise, the Parisian suburb where he lived at the time, using a range of etching techniques. He evoked the effects of natural light amid the shadowy forest by combining grainy aquatint with softground—a process that creates loose, painterly lines and tone. Although primarily known as painters, many of the Impressionists took up printmaking, developing new techniques to translate the effects of natural light. Pissarro, especially, experimented with etching, working extensively with the technique alongside Edgar Degas around the time this print was made. Pissarro made this print for the journal Le Jour et la nuit that he planned with Edgar Degas, but was never realized.