June, Rainy Weather, Éragny

Now at the Art Institute of Chicago, this 1898 oil depicts Éragny in June under rainy conditions — an unusual subject, as most landscape painters preferred clement weather. Pissarro's systematic interest in atmospheric variation meant he sought out overcast, rainy days as deliberately as sunny ones, applying to rural Normandy the same meteorological range he brought to urban series. June's rainy weather transformed the farm landscape into cooler, greener harmonies, with the overcast light creating an even, soft illumination across orchards and fields. The result is one of his more intimate late landscapes, far removed from the grandeur of his Paris series but no less technically accomplished.

The rainy June palette employs cool greens, soft grey-blue sky, and muted ochre earth tones. Pissarro uses a variety of stroke directions — horizontal for fields, curved for foliage, vertical for trees — to differentiate textures within the unified grey light. The overall effect is fresh and subtly moist.