Woman and Child at the Well - Camille Pissarro

Potter Palmer Collection

"Woman and Child at the Well" by Camille Pissarro (1882) Oil on canvas.

Commentary

"Woman and Child at the Well" by Camille Pissarro (1882) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone. Themes to notice include Post-Impressionism, painting. This piece is held in the source collection's Painting and Sculpture of Europe collection. Camille Pissarro is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903). The work is cataloged within a France cultural context. It is associated with the Post-Impressionism period. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as painting, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Oil on canvas) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (81.5 × 66.4 cm (32 1/8 × 26 1/8 in.); Framed: 98.5 × 81.6 × 6.1 cm (38 3/4 × 32 1/8 × 2 3/8 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include Post-Impressionism, painting. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/81552

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data