The Oise (pronounced waz) River, begins in Belgium and flows into France. It runs about 212 miles before entering the Seine. This painting is one of a series Pissarro completed showing the river from different angles.
What beautiful colors, especially in the sky, the grasses along the riverbank and in the reflecting water. Here, Pissarro's brushstrokes have become loose and short which fills the painting with energy. The water, plant life, the village to the left of center, the cloudy sky, the strollers on the dirt road - all harmonize in a very lovely way.
But look, there is a factory off in the distance pumping dirty smoke into the sky, as if to spoil the clouds. The vertical line of the smoke stack is mixed in with the lines of distant trees. In a time of industrialization, invader factories grew up along the Oise River near Pontoise. Pissarro's contemporaries were still painting nature as pristine and undisturbed, but Pissarro admits the factory. Perhaps he is telling us that we have to hold contrasts in tension.
Some people see things as black or white. Not a few religious people think this way: "You're in or you're out." But life isn't this way. The factory is making a mess of things. Sometimes what's messy has to be recognized and admitted. So, for all of that, let's not miss the brightness of the day, the light-reflecting river with the lush banks, the good company of the folks walking along the road. And even though it isn't emphasized by Pissarro, way off in the distance we discern the cathedral of St. Maclovius de Pontoise at the top of the road.
"What good is a road if it doesn't lead to a church," Russian Proverb
