1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Rue Damiette, Rouen is a 1884 by Camille Pissarro, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a quiet street in Rouen, France—gray sky, wet cobblestones, a few people hurrying under umbrellas. Pissarro drew this same view twice: once in pencil, once as an etching. The lines are quick, almost like he caught the scene in passing. He loved how light and weather changed a place, and here, the damp air softens every edge. If you like this, look up *impasto*—a painting technique where brushstrokes stand out thick and textured, something Pissarro used in his oil paintings.
This drawing was created during an early trip of many that Camille Pissarro took to Rouen, a port city in northern France. It inspired the artist to create a virtually identical etching around the same time, and may have served as a preparatory sketch for that work. A founding member of the Impressionist group, Pissarro spent much of his career painting the rural and landscape outdoors and paid particular attention to the effects of weather and natural light. Here, the gray skies over the town echo the muted tone of the stone buildings that occupy a quiet side street.
Because of its picturesque qualities, Rouen's rue Damiette has served as a subject for numerous artists.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( piss-AR-oh; French: ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies).
See the richer artist page
