L’Hermitage, Pontoise Snow Effect is the rare Impressionist winter scene that exists not as a painting but as a print: a six-state soft-ground etching with aquatint, spit bite, and drypoint executed by Camille Pissarro in 1879, the same year he produced the related Wooded Landscape at L’Hermitage, Pontoise ^[3][4]. The work belongs to a pivotal decade in which Pissarro, already the eldest and most stabilizing figure among the Impressionists, was simultaneously consolidating his landscape printmaking practice and preparing to adopt the Neo-Impressionist techniques of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac ^[1].

Technique: soft ground, aquatint, and the sixth state

The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the medium as soft ground, aquatint, spit bite, etching, and drypoint on Japanese paper, in the sixth state of six as catalogued by Shapiro ^[3]. The National Gallery of Art independently confirms the combination of aquatint, soft-ground, and drypoint on Japanese paper ^[4]. This layered technique allowed Pissarro to build the dense, textured undergrowth of the L’Hermitage woods: soft ground produced grainy, chalk-like lines; aquatint and spit bite created tonal washes suggesting filtered winter light; and drypoint added velvety accents in the final states ^[3][4]. The print’s plate measures 8 11/16 × 10 9/16 in. (22 × 26.9 cm) on a sheet of 10 5/8 × 14 in. (27 × 35.6 cm) ^[3].

Provenance: the 1921 Rogers Fund acquisition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s impression entered the collection through the Rogers Fund in 1921, a purchase fund established in 1901 that has supported numerous acquisitions of European prints and drawings ^[3]. The National Gallery of Art holds a separate impression of the same 1879 print, indicating that Pissarro’s edition circulated among American institutional collectors in the early twentieth century ^[4].

Provenance summary

Date	Event	Source
1879	Print executed by Pissarro; sixth state per Shapiro	[3]
1921	Metropolitan Museum of Art impression acquired via Rogers Fund	[3]
—	National Gallery of Art impression acquired separately	[4]

Artist: Pissarro’s role as dean of the Impressionists

Born 10 July 1830 on the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Pissarro was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter and printmaker ^[1][2]. Art historian John Rewald called him the “dean of the Impressionist painters,” not only because he was the oldest of the group, but “by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality” ^[1]. In 1873, the year before the first Impressionist exhibition, Pissarro helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the “pivotal” figure in holding the group together ^[1]. Paul Cézanne said of him: “he was a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord” ^[1]. Pissarro studied from Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and later worked alongside Seurat and Signac when he adopted the Neo-Impressionist style at age 54 ^[1]. Pierre-Auguste Renoir referred to his work as “revolutionary” ^[1].

Subject and related works: the L’Hermitage motif

The print depicts the wooded landscape at L’Hermitage, Pontoise, a rural suburb northwest of Paris where Pissarro lived and worked extensively in the 1870s ^[3][4]. The same year, 1879, Pissarro produced the closely related print Wooded Landscape at L’Hermitage, Pontoise (also titled Paysage sous bois, à L’Hermitage, Pontoise), which shares the soft-ground and drypoint technique ^[3][4]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogs the work under the title Wooded Landscape at L’Hermitage, Pontoise, while the National Gallery of Art gives the French subtitle ^[3][4]. The “Snow Effect” of the title reflects Pissarro’s broader Impressionist interest in capturing atmospheric conditions, a concern he shared with Claude Monet and other members of the group ^[1].

Collection and exhibition history

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s impression is on view in Gallery 690, part of the museum’s Drawings and Prints galleries ^[3]. The National Gallery of Art’s impression is listed in its open-access collection data ^[4]. Both institutions date the work to 1879 ^[3][4]. The print’s presence in two major American museum collections underscores its significance within Pissarro’s graphic oeuvre, which remains less well known than his paintings but was central to his experimental practice ^[1][3][4].

Frequently asked questions

Is L’Hermitage, Pontoise Snow Effect a painting or a print?

It is a print, not a painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the medium as soft ground, aquatint, spit bite, etching, and drypoint on Japanese paper ^[3]. The National Gallery of Art confirms it as an aquatint, soft-ground, and drypoint on Japanese paper ^[4].

When was the print created?

Both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art date the work to 1879 ^[3][4]. This places it in the same year as Pissarro’s related print Wooded Landscape at L’Hermitage, Pontoise ^[3][4].

Where can I see the print today?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s impression is on view in Gallery 690, and was acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1921 ^[3]. The National Gallery of Art holds another impression in its collection ^[4].