Le Louvre, Matin, Printemps 1902

Camille Pissarro painted Le Louvre, Matin, Printemps in 1902, using oil on canvas to capture a springtime morning. I love how Pissarro uses these small, broken strokes of color. It’s all about process. You can see the individual marks, none of which are trying too hard to be perfectly representational. Instead, they accumulate and create this shimmering impression of light and atmosphere. Looking closely, the water is rendered with short, choppy strokes of blues and greens, reflecting the sky and the surrounding buildings. But there’s also this beautiful stillness to it, a quiet energy. Notice the little figure standing on the embankment, rendered with just a few strokes of red and black. It's a simple mark, but it brings the whole scene to life. It’s a kind of shorthand, a way of suggesting a whole world with just a few gestures. Pissarro was a master of this kind of observational painting; a precursor to someone like David Hockney, with his own light filled landscapes. For Pissarro, I think it's about finding a kind of poetry in the everyday.