Highview, Fishpond. Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944). 1915. Oil on canvas. 533 x 648 mm. Collection: Tate. Accession number, NO3179; presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1917. Kindly made available via Art UK on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
This painting from Fishpond, Dorset, where the Pissarros were renting a cottage in the early part of the First World War, appealed greatly to Pissarro's friend J. B. Manson. Speaking of the Fishpond paintings generally, he wrote, "They are beautiful, particularly the one of the hills, which is very fine indeed. [Director of the Tate Gallery, Charles] Aitken likes it very much and thinks perhaps the Contemporary Art Society will buy it" (qtd. in Jenkins). It is not clear there which one he means, but later on, he singled it out by name, writing to Pissarro, "Go to it, my dear old man. You are surpassing yourself. I think the High View is a masterpiece" (qtd in both Jenkins and Meadmore 156; the latter with the italics).
The colours are not particularly brilliant here, and Pissarro's brushwork does not draw attention to itself. What makes it stand out is the composition — the patchwork of fields marked out by the darker green hedgerows, set against the long, bold lines of the hills, and the sharper, regular angles of roofs closer to the foreground. The emphasis on contrasting lines was very deliberate: "the shapes of the bushes in the foreground have been strengthened with outlines drawn over in blue paint" (Jenkins). Another attractive element is the figure of the woman in her hat and long skirt, walking away from us down the side of the lane, unconscious of anyone's gaze. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Related Material
Bibliography
Jenkins, David Fraser. Catalogue Entry for High View, Fishpond, 1915 (part of "The Camden Town Group in Context" project). Tate. Web. 14 August 2020.
Bibliography
Jenkins, David Fraser. Catalogue Entry for High View, Fishpond, 1915 (part of "The Camden Town Group in Context" project). Tate. Web. 14 August 2020.
Meadmore, William Sutton. Lucien Pissarro: Un Coeur Simple. New York: Knopf, 1963.
Created 14 August 2020