Sunset at Éragny-sur-Epte, Autumn

This 1902 canvas at the Ashmolean records the dramatic colour shift of Éragny's orchards and meadows in late autumn, viewed at the moment when setting sun turns the landscape copper and gold. Pissarro painted sunset subjects only rarely—he more often preferred the even light of overcast mornings—making this canvas an unusual meteorological departure. It was executed during a period of intense productivity in his last full working year, as he sensed the advancing threat to his outdoor practice and documented every atmospheric variation of his Norman landscape with renewed urgency.

The low angle of autumn sunset is captured through warm orange-gold impasto in the foliage contrasted against a cooler blue-grey sky. Long horizontal strokes across the meadow suggest the raking quality of evening light sweeping flat Norman ground, while the absence of sharp cast shadows suggests an overcast sky that diffuses the sunset's warmth evenly.