Afternoon Sunshine, Pont Neuf

This 1901 canvas at the Philadelphia Museum of Art captures the Pont-Neuf in afternoon sunshine, part of the second major Paris series Pissarro undertook after the Boulevard Montmartre. The afternoon sun, lower in the sky than morning light, created warmer, more golden tones on the bridge's stone and created longer shadows across the pavement. Afternoon views differ in character from his morning ones — the light is more horizontal, the shadows longer, and the atmosphere often slightly hazy. The Philadelphia holding places this among major American museum collections of Impressionism, acquired during the period of intense American enthusiasm for French nineteenth-century painting.

Afternoon sunshine creates warm gold and amber on the Pont-Neuf's stone, with longer blue-grey shadows stretching across the foreground. The Seine below reflects the warm afternoon sky in ochre and pale gold. Pissarro's marks are assured and varied, conveying the golden quality of Parisian afternoon light through a warm-dominant palette.