New Year Card 1925

Curator: Here we have Lucien Pissarro's "New Year Card," held in the Tate Collections, a lovely little wood engraving. Editor: It feels like a memory, doesn't it? The stark black and white, the tiny scale... like a half-forgotten dream of a village. Curator: Pissarro's commitment to the rural is interesting—it’s almost an idealized view of English countryside life rendered in miniature. Editor: The village as microcosm. All those little houses huddled together...a collective desire for warmth, light even, symbolized by the blank windows against the dark thatch. Curator: There’s a real sense of the handmade, the personal touch, in this tiny scene. Editor: Perhaps a wish for a simpler, more grounded new year. What’s more hopeful than that? Curator: Yes. Pissarro gifts us with an intimate image of hope and shared experience. Editor: It certainly sets the tone for reflection on the year ahead.