Art Critque of Pissaro's : A Winter Morning

Having never been to Europe, I always imagined the mornings in a city like Paris to have a certain eclectic ness about it. My notions of bright sunny mornings, people sipping coffee and eating croissants, and painters setting up their easels to begin a days work were obviously quite to the contrary of Camille Pissaro. In his painting, The Pont Neuf: A Winter Morning, Pissaro captured a more gloomy and mundane city scene set in the dead of winter. Far from my ideals of people perusing a morning paper or enjoying a gourmet breakfast, Pissaro included people who seemed to be loafing around much like that of an American society were people are too busy to enjoy the simple things in the morning like the smell of dewy grass or the early morning chirp of the birds. While the content of the painting may have been far from what I had dreamed, it was actually the color scheme that really seemed to mold me into a solemn mood. The dark hazy colors left me feeling cold and empty and all the while curious as to how the day would unfold.

While the painting was far from what I envisioned a morning in Paris to be like, Pissaro's technique was definitely able to capture a certain feeling. Pissaro used actual rough texture for this work. The quality of the lines throughout the painting varied from straight lines to jagged. The variance in lines created a focus that was directed toward the center of the painting. Immediately, when viewing this painting, the eyes were drawn to the center where the monument was found. This was done by using a psychic line and can be created in several ways. The detail and vividness of the monument itself and the tree behind it were in strong contrast with everything else in the painting. The monument stood tall and clear while the buildings, the bridge, and the characters around the monument were blurry and not concise. Other lines, such as implied lines, could be found throughout the painting as well. Examples of such a line are seen in instances where a color change occurs from the buildings in the distance to the sky on the horizon line and also where the light, paler sky contrasts with the dingy, grayish black buildings. Another variation of a line, the actual line, was used quite frequently by Pissaro. Lines along the edge of the patio and the branches in the tree behind the large monument are just a few examples of his use of this line.

Pissaro's choice of color was also another factor in the mood of the painting. Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors were splashed throughout the painting yet all the colors seem to blend and resemble each other. By using similar colors, it created a feeling of harmoniously related color known as analogous harmony. Also evident was Pissaro's use of low value contrast to create the effects of the early morning sunrise. The use of lighter, softer tones emitted very little variance in value in the painting. To counter that, an area of high key value was found at the base of the monument where there was white. This white shade was meant to look as though it was created by the sun that was reflecting off of it. While Pissaro used a variety of color throughout the painting, he was very consistent with the intensity. Low intensity was the greatest in the distance, with intensity increasing with objects that appear closer. To capture the consistent low intensity, Pissaro had effectively mixed grays with the other colors in the painting.

Shapes also played a key role on the canvas. Nothing in the painting was portrayed

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