Marketplace in Pontoise 1886

Camille Pissarro made this drawing of a marketplace using pen and ink. It is a view of everyday life that employs very particular means. The appearance of this work is entirely dependent on the accumulation of dots, a technique known as pointillism. Pissarro embraced pointillism in the late 1880s, influenced by the scientific approach of artists like Seurat. Yet, unlike them, he brought this painstaking method to bear not on grand subjects, but on ordinary scenes like this one. The effect is to give the image an almost dreamlike quality. It softens the edges of the architecture and the figures, and indeed, the repetitive application of ink mimics the repetitive acts of the laborers depicted. There’s a real connection here between the artist’s hand and the working people he portrays. So, remember that in art, the choice of materials and techniques can imbue an artwork with so much more than just visual representation; it can reflect the social and cultural context in which it was created.