James Brydon

Dr Nevitt
10.04.2010
ARTH 1381
Van Gogh vs Pissarro
The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was a period of great transition in
the art world. Impressionism was slowly giving way to post-impressionist artists. Both classes of
artists had similarities and differences with the other, and they both showed their unique histories
in different ways. Although there were many famous artists from both classes, impressionist
Camille Pissarro and post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh were arguably the two most famous
artists from their classes. Their paintings, The Goose Girl at Mont Foucault and The Rocks,
respectively, not only showed the differences between the two styles, but also the common traits
between each.
Camille Pissarros painting, The Goose Girl at Mont Foucault, is physically larger than
Van Goghs The Rocks. The Goose Girl at Mont Foucault exhibits many of the traits of
impressionist paintings, including the emphasis on time and changing light and the use of
movement to add an extra dimension to the artists work. Pissarros painting has finer detailing
than van Goghs painting, and it shows many intricate details including her hands and the rake
that she is holding, although her face is not well defined. Pissarro also detailed the ducks quite
finely, but perhaps the most intricate part of his painting are the leaves in the trees and bushes.
Van Gogh used similar colors and shapes to paint his tree. This is one of the defining features
that makes Pissarro an impressionist painter. The positioning of Pissarros piece is probably a
few yards from the center of the painting, the woman in the garden. This is about the same
distance from the subject as in Van Goghs painting. The distance that Pissarro used helps
viewers to take in the entire setting of his outdoor painting. Although the woman in the middle is
the centerpiece, he also wanted people to see the beauty of nature in his paintings, and adopting
his zoomed out approach achieved that. In his painting the woman is slightly higher than the
viewpoint, but this appears to be caused by the fact that she is standing on some type of dirt
embankment, possibly the upper ledge of a small creek. This would explain the presence of the
bridge in the painting. Pissarros excellent use of shading in the Goose Girl at Mont Foucault
makes the painting look as if it was done in the late afternoon. The changing colors of the leaves
and the partially bare tree mean that this picture was almost definitely done in the late fall or
early winter. If the woman in the painting was following the traditional rural schedule of the late
nineteenth century, she was probably very close to finishing her daily chores on the farm or plot
that she lived on. The level of texture detail in the Goose Girl at Mont Foucault is quite good,
even more so when one considers the fact that Pissarro was working with oil paints in his work.
It is easy to see and recognize detail on the grass in the foreground, the fallen tree and other trees
in the background, the bushes to the left side, and of course the woman and the geese in the
center. Looking closely, it is possible to see the texture of the wooden supports on the bridge,
and the curvature of the bushes on the left. The main focus of the Goose Girl at Mont Foucault is
the lady at the center of the painting and the ducks surrounding her. Pissarros focus on a
relatively unimportant woman instead of objects of religious significance is another one of the
major differences between impressionism and earlier artistic periods. Pissarros use of depth
technique made his painting seem more three dimensional than van Goghs The Rocks. This
helped viewers to see his focus on nature and peasent life better than a two dimensional drawing
would have done. The setting of his drawing is somewhere in rural Europe, in a patch of land
that is on the border of being wild and civilized. The foreground shows a well maintained lawn,
but the background is a massive expanse of wilderness and trees. The woman in the middle is
unknown, but she is obviously of the lower or lower-middle class social tier. The reason Pissarro
chose to paint someone from this class was probably to show to other people the hardships faced
by peasents and the lower class. This would agree with his radical social and political ideology.
Compared to Pissarros brushwork, van Goghs is much thicker in his work The Rocks.
The combination of the post-impressionist style mixed with his unique brushwork makes this
painting visually much different than Pissarros piece. Brcause van Goghs brush strokes are so
heavy and forceful, his painting has considerably less detail than Pissarros painting. In
Pissarros painting it is possible to see the individual leave on the tree, in van Goghs The Rocks,
it is hard to even see the individual areas of grass. Even the tree in the van Gogh painting has
indistinct leaves, despite the fact that it is closer to the viewpoint than the trees in Pissarros
work. Being a post-impressionist painter, van Gogh emphasized the use of vivid colors in his
painting. The way it is used in The Rocks, it makes it seem less realistic than The Goose Girl at
Mont Foucault. Also, when comparing The Rocks with the Goose Girl at Mont Foucault, it looks
like van Gogh used a much smaller color selection than Pissarro did. Looking at van Goghs
work, it appears that there may be as few as ten colors that were actually painted, the way they
mixed together caused a few of them to blend together into some different colors. The colors in
The Rocks are also darker than The Goose Girl at Mont Foucault, although to due to the lack of
visible shadows, it is hard to tell if that is because the painting was done late in the day or early
morning. The centerpiece of van Goghs painting is the tree in the middle. It is on a formation of
rocks, so it is above the viewpoint that van Gogh was painting from. The distance is probably a
bit less than in the Pissarro painting. Van Gogh probably intended for the tree to be the
centerpiece, but wanted to show the formation of rocks as well, which is why he likely chose to
use a viewpoint that is farther back. Van Goghs painting is a fair bit darker than The Goose Girl
at Mont Foucault, but the lack of visible shadows makes it hard to judge what time of day the
picture was taken. Many of van Goghs paintings used darker colors, so the time cannot be
determined by looking at them. However, because the tree is completely green, it is at least
reasonable to assume that it was done sometime in the spring or summer. Van Goghs heavy
brushwork means that the leaves, foliage, and stones are not very well distinguished. Most blades
of grass look like they were painted in one or two brush strokes. Another interesting observation
about the detail, is that the sky looks like it was done in one long, weaving brushstroke, with the
tree painted over it. The Rocks appears flat, and lacks the perspective of Pissarros painting.
There is enough dimensional detail to show that the ledge of the rocks is farther away from the
viewpoint than the grass in the foreground, but it is still very lacking when compared to the vivid
depths that Pissarro utilized. The Rocks was done somewhere in southern France, and although it
is not possible to determine the exact location, it is obviously in a rural area. There are no people
or buildings to interrupt the natural scenery. The foreground is dominated by the rocky hill that
the tree sits on, it is hard to tell what is behind the hill, but it appears to be a large field of
uninterrupted grass. Even the sky lacks the birds that are seen in Pissarros painting. These traits
are all characteristic of most of the paintings that van Gogh did later in his lifetime.
Camille Pissarros painting The Goose Girl at Mont Foucault and Vincent van Goghs
work The Rocks are both prime examples of how impressionist art transformed into the post-
impressionist style. Pissarros finer brush strokes and emphasis on time and movement make his
work the distinct impressionist style. Vincent van Goghs heavy strokes and color choices
categorize him as a post-impressionist artist. Although post-impressionism evolved from
impressionism, it still had some of the same traits, while also eliminating others. Both painters
focused more on nature than other artists of the same period, used the same viewpoint in many of
their paintings, and had a dominant centerpiece. Despite this, van Gogh used much heavier brush
strokes, a markedly smaller paint selection, and worked much quicker than Pissarro did. These
individual differences and similarities between the two styles are what makes them so unique and
interesting even today.