A wide creek winds between a tree-lined bank to our left and hazy mountains to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The riverbank curves deeply like a backward capital letter B. Marshy grasses grow in tufts, and palm and other trees grow in a grove to our left. One brown-skinned person wearing only a white cloth around the hips carries a long stick near the shoreline. Dabs of brown and muted dark pink suggest other people farther along the riverside. Tree-covered boulders jut into the creek from our right. A band of rocky, mountains are smoky mauve-pink across the rightmost two-thirds of the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the composition. The butter-yellow sun is low on the horizon to our right, peeking through the grove of palm trees. The light pours across the placid surface of the creek, creating a soft yellow streak next to the reflection of the mountain ridge. A few heather-pink clouds drift across the pale turquoise sky. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “C. Pizarro. 1856. Paris.”
Read the visual description

A wide creek winds between a tree-lined bank to our left and hazy mountains to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The riverbank curves deeply like a backward capital letter B. Marshy grasses grow in tufts, and palm and other trees grow in a grove to our left. One brown-skinned person wearing only a white cloth around the hips carries a long stick near the shoreline. Dabs of brown and muted dark pink suggest other people farther along the riverside. Tree-covered boulders jut into the creek from our right. A band of rocky, mountains are smoky mauve-pink across the rightmost two-thirds of the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the composition. The butter-yellow sun is low on the horizon to our right, peeking through the grove of palm trees. The light pours across the placid surface of the creek, creating a soft yellow streak next to the reflection of the mountain ridge. A few heather-pink clouds drift across the pale turquoise sky. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “C. Pizarro. 1856. Paris.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Creek in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands)

Camille Pissarro

Date
1856
Medium
oil on academy board
Dimensions
overall: 24.5 x 32.2 cm (9 5/8 x 12 11/16 in.) framed: 37.5 x 45.7 x 4.8 cm (14 3/4 x 18 x 1 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1985.64.29
Credit line
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Time span
1851 to 1875
Department
CF

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • French
  • Impressionist
  • Waterway
  • St. Thomas
  • Virgin Islands
  • landscape
Provenance

Antoine Melbye; Mme Melbye's nephew, Emmanuel Pichon, Le Pecq, France, by 1936 until at least 1939.[1] Mme Jules Joets, by 1956;[2] sold 1959 to (Wildenstein & Co., London, New York and Paris);[3] sold 1960 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville; gift 1985 to NGA. [1] Published as in Pichon collection by Rewald, "L'Oeuvre de jeunesse de Camille Pissarro," _L'Amour de l'art_, 1936, p.141 repro. and in Pissarro and Venturi catalogue raisonné, 1939, no. 6. [2] Exhibited in Paris, 1956 and Berne, 1957, from a private collection in Paris. According to Paul Mellon records in NGA curatorial files, this collection was that of Mme Jules Joets. A label from the 1957 exhibition on the reverse of the painting gives owner as Mme Joets. [3] Wildenstein's date and source of acquisition according to letter dated 14 December 1998 in NGA curatorial files.

Inscription

lower left: C. Pizarro. 1856. / Paris

NGA object ID 66427. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.