View of the Côte des Gratte-Coqs, Pontoise

View of the Côte des Gratte-Coqs, Pontoise at the Kunstmuseum Basel, painted in 1875, belongs to Pissarro's systematic survey of the hillside terrain above Pontoise that he conducted through the 1870s. The Côte des Gratte-Coqs — one of the named slopes of the Pontoise hillside — appeared in multiple canvases from different seasons and conditions, its specific topography of cultivated fields and winding paths providing one element in the comprehensive pictorial atlas of the region that his Pontoise work collectively constitutes. The Kunstmuseum Basel's acquisition of this canvas as part of its French Impressionist holdings documents the Swiss engagement with the movement that placed several important early canvases in Swiss collections before the American market became dominant. The 1875 date places the canvas in the year after the first Impressionist exhibition, when the group was still fighting for critical and commercial recognition but producing work of remarkable quality and conviction.

Pissarro built his canvases with short, woven strokes of color applied in all directions, creating densely textured surfaces that shimmer with atmospheric light. His palette is characteristically muted and silvery — grays, greens.