Rainbow, Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

Rainbow, Pontoise (1877) is one of Camille Pissarro’s rare depictions of a rainbow, a meteorological phenomenon that the Impressionist painter rendered with the same broken brushwork and atmospheric sensitivity he applied to the fields and hills of the French countryside. Painted during his most productive period in the small town northwest of Paris, the work captures a fleeting moment of clearing weather, with the rainbow arching over a landscape of cultivated fields and scattered trees.

Provenance: the 1877 painting and its collection history

The painting, executed in oil on canvas and measuring 52.7 × 81.8 cm, is dated to 1877 ^[3]. The work is held in the collection identified as Kröller-Müller Museum, which corresponds to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the museum that houses the largest public collection of Impressionist paintings in France ^[3]. The painting’s dimensions and date have been verified through the catalogue entry, which records its inception as 1877 ^[3].

Date	Event
1877	Painting executed by Pissarro ^[3]
20th century	Entered the collection of the Musée d’Orsay (Kröller-Müller Museum) ^[3]

Technique: broken brushwork and atmospheric light

Pissarro’s technique in Rainbow, Pontoise exemplifies the Impressionist method he helped define. As a founding member of the Impressionist group, Pissarro employed short, broken strokes to convey the shimmering effects of light on the landscape ^[1]. The rainbow itself is rendered not as a solid arc but as a series of colored dashes that blend optically when viewed from a distance, a technique consistent with the artist’s practice of capturing the transient effects of weather and light ^[1]. The painting’s relatively modest dimensions (52.7 × 81.8 cm) suggest an intimate, plein-air study rather than a large studio composition ^[3].

Iconography: the rainbow as a meteorological event

The rainbow in this painting is notable for its rarity in Pissarro’s oeuvre. While the artist frequently painted the fields, orchards, and riverbanks around Pontoise, the inclusion of a rainbow represents an unusual meteorological subject ^[1]. The arc spans the upper portion of the canvas, framing a landscape of green fields and low hills characteristic of the Oise River valley. The presence of the rainbow suggests a scene immediately following rain, with the sun breaking through clouds to create the optical phenomenon ^[1]. This focus on a transient atmospheric effect aligns with the Impressionist interest in capturing fleeting moments of light and weather ^[1].

Pontoise and the Impressionist landscape tradition

Pontoise, a town approximately 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, was a significant site for Pissarro’s development as a landscape painter. He settled there in 1866 and returned repeatedly over the following decades, finding in its rolling hills and agricultural fields an inexhaustible source of motifs ^[1]. The town also attracted other artists, including Paul Cézanne, who worked alongside Pissarro in Pontoise and later acknowledged him as "a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord" ^[1]. Pissarro’s role as a mentor to younger artists, including Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, was central to his legacy; art historian John Rewald called him the "dean of the Impressionist painters", noting his wisdom and warmhearted personality ^[1].

Pissarro’s position between Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism

Although Rainbow, Pontoise dates from 1877, a period firmly within Pissarro’s Impressionist phase, the artist’s career spanned multiple movements. Born on the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Pissarro moved to France and studied under the forerunners of Impressionism, including Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ^[1]. In 1873, he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the pivotal figure in holding the group together and organizing their exhibitions ^[1]. Later, at age 54, he adopted the Neo-Impressionist style, working alongside Georges Seurat and Paul Signac ^[1]. The 1877 painting predates this shift, representing the artist at the height of his Impressionist practice, when his primary concern was the direct observation of nature and the rendering of atmospheric effects ^[1].