The Hills from Cadborough, Sunset. Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944). 1913. Oil on canvas. H 54 x W 65 cm. Manchester Art Gallery. Accession number, 1925/309. Acquisition method: gift from Charles Lambert Rutherston, 1925. Kindly made available via Art UK on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).

Cadborough Cliff in Rye, East Sussex, has wonderful views over the town and surrounding countryside. Pissarro visited Rye in 1913 with his good friend and fellow artist James Bolivar Manson (1879-1945), each of them making several paintings in the vicinity. Here, the curved outlines of the hills, and the human contributions of fields and paths, are blended under the gentle glow of the sunset. There is nothing really dramatic about it; Pissarro's success has been in capturing a peaceful rural scene.

Bibliography

Baron, Wendy. "Pissarro, Lucien Camille (1863–1944), artist and printer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 11 August 2020.

Furness, Tom. James Bolivar Manson (1879-1945): Painters of Modern Life: The Camden Town Group (part of "The Camden Town Group in Context" project). Tate. Web. 12 August 2020. [This is very good on the relationship between Pissarro and Manson.]


Created 12 August 2020