The Harvest, Pontoise (La Récolte, Pontoise)

• Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
• 1881
• Oil on canvas
• Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
• (1975.1.197)

Camille Pissarro, the eldest of the Impressionists, lived in Pontoise, northwest of Paris, where he painted traditional rural scenes such as this harvest of crops, likely potatoes, from the fertile soil. At the center of the composition is the slope of a hill, across which Pissarro applied short, layered brushstrokes of vivid color to depict figures and a sunlit, abundant landscape. Each figure is absorbed in a different task, evoking the repetitive labor characteristic of the harvest season.