The fifth of eight Impressionist Exhibitions was held this year - 1880. Remember, Pissarro and his friends collaborated in creating these exhibitions in response to the exclusive, tradition bound, high style of the Paris Salon. This year, Cezanne, Renoir, Sisely and Monet, the groups most important members, chose instead to participate in the Salon exhibit.
I can't help but feel Pissarro's disappointment and perhaps sense of betrayal, as four collaborator-friends must have talked and planed, behind his back. Anyone of us may know that feeling. Pissarro is fifty years of age when he paints A Street in Auvers. Money was scarce and he had a family to support.
Having said that, this painting is not gloomy or dour. The blue sky is full of clouds, but they are not storm clouds.
The two peasant workers have stopped for a chat, the man is carrying sticks for fuel, the lady is walking her cow to pasture perhaps. They live in this little commune of Auvers, a cluster of houses with thatched (straw) roofs.
Notice there is a path or rough road through the village. Seeming to invite us in, it is wide at our end but then quickly narrowing, it disappears around the bend of the unknown. Poor Camille, his friends left the Impressionist Exhibit going to what they perceived to be tried and true (or simply more lucrative). Pissarro needed the money, still he leaned in, trusting, but certainly unsure of what lay ahead.
The Persian Mystic, Rumi wrote: "As you start to walk on the way, the way appears." Some people quit or even turn back when the future feels unsure or the present moment paralyzes them. But Pissarro found his way by setting out and carrying on, apparently trusting his inner voice.
Jesus did that. From the very start we see Jesus in the Gospels on the road to Jerusalem, where the great drama of his dying and rising will take place.
The Persian Mystic, Rumi wrote: "As you start to walk on the way, the way appears." Some people quit or even turn back when the future feels unsure or the present moment paralyzes them. But Pissarro found his way by setting out and carrying on, apparently trusting his inner voice.
Jesus did that. From the very start we see Jesus in the Gospels on the road to Jerusalem, where the great drama of his dying and rising will take place.
