The Lock at Pontoise 1869

Camille Pissarro made this oil painting, *The Lock at Pontoise*, sometime in the late nineteenth century. The artist favored painting *en plein air*, and this work seems to capture a fleeting moment of light on the water, sky, and foliage. But let’s consider the setting itself. Pissarro has depicted a lock on a canal. We can assume that human hands built the stone infrastructure, and that people are operating it to move goods up and down the waterway. So, while it may seem like a straightforward landscape, Pissarro's painting also speaks to the labor and logistics of modern commerce. The dabs of paint, and the overall composition, draw attention away from the commercial activity, toward a more contemplative experience. But consider this: even those brushstrokes are a kind of labor, the artist’s work made visible. In this way, Pissarro subtly reminds us that all landscapes are also workscapes.