The young Pissarro was deeply influenced by a number of established, and very different artists, among them Millet, Daubigny, Manet and – rather incongruously – the Danish marine painter Anton Melbye, whom Pissarro formally acknowledged as his teacher. Above all, however, it is the influence of Courbet and Corot that is most obvious in the present work: its heavy impasto and earthy colors are reminiscent of the former painter, but its sense of picturesque calm hark to the paintings of the latter. With its strong geometric structure, the painting also bears early testimony to the influence that Pissarro and Cezanne would exert on each other after their first meeting in 1861.
Although Pissarro struggled to create a synthesis between so man y influences, in this modest but carefully executed early painting, he displays the strong and deliberate style, the affinity with rural life and sense of poetry that would be the hallmarks of his artistic vision.
