KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: Camille Pissarro painted this view of the Jalais Hill, near his home in Pontoise, in 1867. The composition is animated by a network of curves that draw the eye toward the center of the painting. Research Curator Asher Miller:

ASHER MILLER: One such curve is the road, which, at its broadest point, occupies the entire width of the canvas, leading to the sun-kissed strollers whose role is to animate the scene. Another curve is the hill that rises most of the way up the right edge of the picture. And there is, of course, the great backdrop of the Jalais Hill itself, with its enclosures marked by regular linear hedges. Wonderful too is the series of vertical forms that stem from the human figures and continues back to the tight group of poplar trees behind them, from which the eye is left to roam and explore the jumble of geometric and natural forms of the village itself.

KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: The painting received high praise from progressive critics when it was exhibited in 1868. Emile Zola wrote:

ASHER MILLER: "This is the modern country. One feels that man has been here, digging the ground, dividing it, creating a melancholy landscape. This small valley, this little hill possess a heroic simplicity and candor. If it were not so great, nothing would be more banal. The painter's temperament has forged a rare poem of life and strength out of ordinary reality."

KEITH CHRISTIANSEN: This painting still shows the influence of Pissarro’s teacher, the great landscape painter Camille Corot. But its bold composition; its ambitious size anticipate the artist’s participation in the first Impressionist Exhibition a few years later, in 1874.