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The Saint-Sever Bridge, Rouen: Mist (work of art)

Artwork Info

Created
1896
Nationality
French
Birth/Death
1830-1903
Dimensions
23 3/4 x 34 1/4 inches (60.3 x 87.0 centimeters)

Credit

Gift of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company

Object Number
GL.67.26.1
Culture
Danish European French
Classification
Paintings
Department
European to 1910

Key Ideas

  • This is an impressionist painting. This art style focuses on color and form rather than realistic-looking scenes. 
  • This is a cityscape of Rouen, France. The artist painted different views of the city’s bridges.
  • Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French impressionist painter. He grew up in a Jewish family in the Danish West Indies
  • Anti-Semitism was increasing in France when Pissarro created this painting. He was rejected by some of his colleagues because of his Jewish background.

Learn More

This impressionist painting depicts a peaceful scene in Rouen, a city in northern France. The work was created at a time when there was a great deal of cultural and political conflict happening in France. Anti-Semitism was on the rise. Many conservative French people were hostile toward Jewish people. They accused them of oppressing French society. 

Camille Pissarro was a French impressionist and neo-impressionist artist. He was born in the Danish West Indies to Jewish parents. Throughout his life he was part of various cultural groups without fully belonging to a specific community. Some of Pissarro’s colleagues avoided him because of his Jewish ancestry and politics. He was rejected by well-known French impressionist artists like Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Pissarro traveled to Rouen several times and created many impressionist paintings of the city’s bridges. Impressionism became a popular style of painting in the 1860s. Impressionist artists focused more on color and form than realistic-looking scenes. They aimed to capture the essence of a subject in their paintings.

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Images

  • An oil painting of a riverside town. The color palette is mostly shades of gray, and the sky is hazy. Boats of different sizes are floating on the water. In the center of the painting, there is a stone bridge with silhouettes of people walking across it. There are industrial buildings with smoke billowing out of smokestacks in the background.

    The Saint-Sever Bridge, Rouen: Mist