The Roofs of Old Rouen, Gray Weather by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro completed The Roofs of Old Rouen, Gray Weather, in 1896, ten years after the final Impressionist exhibition. Painted late in his life, Pissarro's view across the rooftops of Rouen synthesized aesthetic ideas that he had gathered through his long association with the Impressionist experiment. To capture the high panorama, Pissarro positioned his easel at the window in his hotel, recalling Claude Monet's view in Boulevard des Capucines shown in the first exhibition (1874). The Roofs of Old Rouen, Gray Weather displays Camille Pissarro's interest in Neo-Impressionism in the dabs of color on the roof, but his subtle evocation of the winter sky reveals his enduring belief in plein air painting.

Camille Pissarro's The Roofs of Old Rouen, Gray Weather (oil on canvas, 28-1/2x36 inches) hangs in the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio.

For more on Impressionist paintings, artists, and art history, see:

• Impressionism
• Vincent van Gogh
• Claude Monet

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debra N. Mancoff, Ph.D., is an art historian and lecturer and the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European and American paintings. She is a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library and an adjunct associate professor and adjunct lecturer at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.