La Mare Aux Saules, Île-De-France 1889

Armand Guillaumin made this painting of La Mare Aux Saules in Île-De-France using oil paint on canvas. Oil paint, despite its ubiquity in fine art, is a material derived from the everyday world; it's pigment mixed with linseed oil, a substance used in all sorts of applications. This connection to the practical world of materials is important. Guillaumin’s broken brushstrokes give the scene an almost woven quality, as though he were building up the image thread by thread. His Impressionist peers were very interested in the optical mixing of colors, but Guillaumin seems more interested in the tactile quality of the paint itself. Guillaumin worked at the intersection of material qualities, making techniques, and cultural significance. This picture, like so much Impressionist painting, challenges the boundary between labor, craft, and fine art.