The Church at Osny (L'Eglise de Osny)

Though we often think of plein-air painting as the quintessential art of the Impressionists, certain print media also offered the immediacy and spontaneity they craved for artmaking based on direct observation of nature. Pissarro was the most prolific Impressionist printmaker, and during his most innovative period, he supplemented etching and drypoint (which resemble drawing in the freedom of "hand" that they offer) with other techniques such as aquatint and granular resins, sometimes containing salt and sugar. Here, with an astonishing variety of strokes and textures, he exploits the print’s potential to evoke the subtlest of atmospheres, for example in the play of clouds scudding across the sky. Nature’s prominence is assured by the sinuous trees, which render inconspicuous the two figures on the grass and dwarf even the church of the title.