Look and Think activities should take 5 -10 minutes.
Do activities might take longer depending on the task and how creative you are feeling!
Camille Pissarro, oil on canvas Height: 60 cm, Width: 73.5 cm, PD.10-1966
Look
What colours can you see in this scene? Zoom in closer.
Compare this painting with another snowy landscape by the same artist.
Is snow always white?
Think
Imagine you are an artist painting a snowy scene.
What equipment would you need? What clothes would you wear? What colours would you need?
Do
Pissarro painted this picture quickly outside on a cold day.
Find your favourite place outside, and a stick to draw with. Can you trace what you can see on the ground in front of you?
If the ground is hard, collect things to lay on top to make your picture.
Camille Pissarro was born in St Thomas in the West Indies but later lived and worked mainly in Paris. He was an Impressionist painter and mainly painted landscapes outside ‘en plein air’. He was influenced by French artists Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796- 1875) who also painted outdoor scenes. In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen artists, now known as the impressionists. He became the “pivotal” figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the “dean of the Impressionist painters”, not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also “by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warm-hearted personality”.
This painting was made at his friend the artist Ludovic Piette-Montfoucault’s (1826-1878) house. Pissarro first visited in the 1860s, but decided to use it as the focus for a series of paintings ten years later. In total he painted eighteen paintings in this area, five of which were in the snow. Shortly before leaving for Montfoucault, Pissarro wrote to his friend about his pleasure in anticipating travelling to a region where he would find, ‘the true countryside’.
If you would like to learn more about the Impressionist artists and other artworks we have in our collection, we have this online exhibition for you.
Download this Look Think Do as a PDF or a Word document.