Haymaking, Éragny

Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903), Éragny, 1887

oil on canvas, 55 cm x 66 cm

This painting is a splendid example of Pointillism, the stipple technique with which Camille Pissarro and fellow-artists were experimenting. The paint was applied in tiny dots and dashes of contrasting colour. It wasn’t easy: Pissarro wrote to his son that he had wrestled with this painting for days to achieve precisely what he had in mind.

Van Gogh greatly admired Pissarro’s colour effects and followed his example. He may well have known this particular painting. His brother Theo, who was an art dealer, sold it in 1887.