Apple Harvest

Points of red, blue, green, pink, lavender, orange, and yellow create a stylized and carefully balanced scene of apple picking in the French countryside. The figures labor under the shadow of a large tree whose edges create a decorative pattern in the foreground, and the small dabs of pure, vibrant color create the dazzling effect of bright afternoon sunshine. The points of color, placed very close to one another, blend in our eye rather than on the surface of the canvas. This exploration of color and optics was known as neo-impressionism, or pointillism.