The Big Walnut Tree, Autumn Morning, Éragny

Painted in 1897 and now in the Pushkin Museum, this canvas shows the great walnut tree at Éragny on an autumn morning — the kind of intimate, single-tree subject that formed the backbone of Pissarro's Éragny landscape production. He had painted specific trees at his farm landscape repeatedly, returning to them in different seasons and light conditions in a serial approach that anticipated his later urban series. The walnut tree, with its spreading canopy, provided a natural armature for organizing sky, foliage, and ground into a satisfying composition. The autumn palette, with its warm golds and russets, is among the most coloristically rich in his late landscapes.

The walnut tree's autumn canopy is rendered in a rich palette of gold, ochre, russet, and deep green. Pissarro's comma-like strokes differentiate leaf clusters from sky, while the trunk and branches are indicated with firmer, darker marks. Morning light is suggested through warm yellow tones in the upper foliage.