Artwork App

91.8 × 150.2 cm (36 1/8 × 59 1/8 in.); Framed: 119.7 × 178.5 × 10.2 cm (47 1/8 × 70 1/4 × 4 in.)

The Banks of the Marne in Winter

This painting of a rural winter landscape is resolutely un-picturesque. Its dark color palette is uninterrupted by any majestic natural elements, such as towering trees or a glittering pond. Even early in his career, Camille Pissarro subverted traditional landscape painting by deliberately diverging from the pastoral scenes of his mentor, Camille Corot. In this large, rectangular canvas, Pisarro applied paint heavily, often using a palette knife, in emulation of Gustave Courbet, whose work is on view nearby. Just a few years after he made this work, Pissarro adopted a more immediate approach to landscape painting, working en plein air (outdoors) directly from nature rather than in a studio, a technique closely associated with the Impressionists.

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection

Colors

Exhibition History

Paris, Palais des Champs-Élysées, Salon de 1866, May 1–June 20, 1866, cat. 1564, as Bords de la Marne en hiver. Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro, Feb.–Mar. 1930, cat. 3. Chicago, Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Fifth Annual Exhibition of Modern French Painting, Feb. 7–21, 1932, cat. 23. Possibly Glasgow Art Gallery, The Spirit of France: French Paintings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, June 1943, cat. 38. London, Lefevre Gallery, French Masters, XIX and XX Century, June–July 1952, cat. 13 (ill.). New York, Wildenstein, C. Pissarro, Mar. 25–May 1, 1965, cat. 2 (ill.). Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Howard Sirak, Feb. 18–Feb. 25, 1975, no cat. Highland Park, Ill., Neison Harris, Mar. 7–May 21, 1975, no cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Second Empire, 1852–1870: Art in France under Napoleon III, Oct. 1–Nov. 26, 1978, cat. VI-96 (ill.); Detroit Institute of Arts, Jan. 18–Mar. 18, 1979; Paris, Galeries Nationales d’Exposition du Grand Palais, as L’art en France sous le Second Empire, May 11–Aug. 13, 1979, cat. 264 (ill.). London, Hayward Gallery, Pissarro: Camille Pissarro 1830–1903, Oct. 30, 1980–Jan. 11, 1981, cat. 6 (ill.); Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Jan. 30–Apr. 27, 1981; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 19–Aug. 9, 1981. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, June 28–Sept. 16, 1984, cat. 9 (ill.); Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 23, 1984–Jan. 6, 1985; Paris, Galeries Nationales d’Exposition du Grand Palais, as L’impressionnisme et le paysage français, Feb. 4–Apr. 22, 1985. Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869, April 19–August 8, 1994, cat. 156; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Origins of Impressionism, September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Camille Pissarro, Nov 19, 2005–Feb. 19, 2006, cat. 7 (ill.); Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Mar. 4–May 28, 2006. New York, Museum of Modern Art, Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarro, 1865–1885, June 26–Sept. 12, 2005, cat. 1 (ill.); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 20, 2005–Jan. 16, 2006; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, as Cézanne et Pissarro, 1865–1885, Feb. 27–May 28, 2006 (New York only). Baltimore Museum of Art, Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape, Feb. 11–May 13, 2007, cat. 5 (ill.); Milwaukee Art Museum, June 10–Sept. 9, 2007; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Oct. 7, 2007–Jan. 6, 2008. Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard Museum, Pissarro: et møde på Skt. Thomas [Pissarro: A Meeting on St. Thomas], March 9-July 2, 2017. Potsdam, Germany, Museum Barberini, The Honest Eye. Camille Pissarro's Impressionism, June 14-Sep. 28, 2025, cat. 13; Denver Art Museum, Oct. 26, 2025-Feb. 8, 2026.