A Cowherd at Valhermeil, Auvers-sur-Oise

Painted the year of the first Impressionist exhibition, this sunlit scene of rural labor near Auvers-sur-Oise captures the deep attachment that Pissarro, the only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions, felt toward the Oise valley landscape where he lived and worked. The cowherd guiding cattle through the fields exemplifies his lifelong interest in depicting the dignity of agricultural life, a theme connecting him to the Barbizon tradition while his broken brushwork and luminous palette place the painting firmly within Impressionism.