Modernism Assignment-Morning, An Overcast

This was the second time when I went to the Metropolitan Museum for my Assignment. First time when I went to Metropolitan Museum I choose the Statue of Lord Ganesha for my presentation but this time, the modern art which I found interesting and suitable for my assignment is painting named as Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen created during the period of impressionism in 1896 by Camille Pissarro. Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist painter born in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, in 1830 and and died in 1903. Camille Pissarro is also known as the “Father of Impressionism” because he is the only artist who showed his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. Most of his paintings were related to the urban and rural life of French people.

When I looked at this painting in the Metropolitan Museum for the first time, the first thing that came to my mind was about the poem that we read in class which was “Composed upon the Westminster bridge” written by William Wordsworth. William Wordsworth tell us about the view and the environment of the Westminster Bridge and in this painting, Camille Pissarro is also giving us a lot of information about the view of iron bridge named as Boieldieu Bridge, or Grand pont surrounded by big buildings. Some of the observations that I made about this painting and I am sure that my observations for this painting are correct because anyone can make observations which are going to same as my observations. Some of the observations that I made about this area is that this city or area near this bridge is very busy and it is very wide; this area might be good in importing and exporting goods because the ship is standing for loading or unloading goods; the bridge that we see in this painting is very beautiful and famous because we can see a lot of people standing on the bridge and it might be one of the place where lot of tourists come. If we see the atmosphere or sky in this painting we can tell that it is going to rain or the reason why sky looks like cloudy is because of the gases that are coming out of the industries. Camille Pissaro made this painting when he was staying in the Hotel d’Angleterre when he visited Rouen in Spring and fall 1896. On the right side of this painting, important information was written about Pissarro. Pissarro wrote of his interest in the “motif of the iron bridge on a rainy day, with much traffic, carriages, pedestrians, workers on the Quays, boats, smoke, mist in the distance, the whole scene fraught with animation and life.”

While I was looking at this painting, a group of tourists came and they have one tourist guide with them who was giving them important information about the painting and I also started listening to him, which helped me in getting important information about this painting. That’s the reason why I choose this painting. The only question that I have about this painting is that- How long does Camille Pissaro take to make this painting?

Sources: “Camille Pissarro.” Camille Pissarro – The Complete Works – Biography, www.camille-pissarro.org/.