Spring at Éragny

Now at the Denver Art Museum, this 1900 canvas depicts spring at Éragny and belongs to a group of works documenting Pissarro's Norman village across all seasons. Spring offered him the fugitive greens of new growth and the pale pinks of apple blossom, colours he captured in multiple canvases over many years. His approach to these seasonal garden views was almost serialist—returning to the same trees and fields under different conditions to build a cumulative record of a particular place through time, paralleling Monet's series paintings though on a more intimate, domestic scale.

The freshness of spring is conveyed through a high-keyed palette of pale lemon yellow and mint green, with touches of pink blossom adding warmth. Pissarro's brushwork is particularly varied: broad washes in the sky give way to dense, textured strokes in the foliage zones, while foreground grass is built up in short horizontal dabs.