Afternoon, Sun, Rouen 1896

Camille Pissarro created "Afternoon, Sun, Rouen" using oil on canvas, capturing a vibrant scene of the French city. Pissarro, of Jewish-Portuguese descent, found himself an outsider within the Parisian art world. This painting encapsulates the rapid industrial and social changes of late 19th-century France. Rouen, a bustling port city, symbolizes a society in flux, with its bridges acting as literal connections between the old and new. Yet, look closely, and you'll notice how the working class peoples animate the bridge and the immediate foreground. The warm sunlight softens the starkness of industrialization, perhaps reflecting a longing for simpler times. Yet, Pissarro doesn't shy away from depicting the modern world, as he wrote, "It is absurd to only do landscape; one must also show the life of the city." "Afternoon, Sun, Rouen" thus invites us to consider the costs and benefits of progress, the beauty and ugliness of urban life, and the experiences of those who are often overlooked in the grand narrative of history.