The first image is Camille Pissarro's original painting and the second image is Yu fei Wang's recreation.
Camille Pissarro: a brief introduction
This oil painting was first created by Camille Pissarro, a french artist, in 1898. He often chose to depict the country lives of peasants unlike his fellow Impressionist painters who showcased the city. He had traveled to Caracas to study painting, where he gained knowledge of nature, light, and color, all of which greatly influenced his works of art. Pissarro was inspired by his Realist colleague Gustave Courbet, and the two painters had similar views, especially given how they attempted to glorify peasants, their laborious work, and communal work back in the countryside. In his paintings, particularly "The Artist's Garden at Eragny", Pissarro merged the methods of Impressionism and Realism.
"Pissarro didn't just use art to paint ordinary things, he used it to express his thoughts, to express his beliefs. He used it to express life!" exclaims Yu fei Wang.
"While recreating this one-of-a-kind painting, my number one priority was to pay attention to Pissarro's techniques: the colors, the spacing, the brush strokes, the details. I was inspired by his talent and how he used his art as a medium to express his thoughts and feelings about the outside world,"explained the fifteen year old painter. "With his paintings, Pissarro was able to show the numerous aspects - both good and bad - of life for the underprivileged. In a way, he humanized them, instead of tearing them down and pushing them towards stereotypes. In Ethiopia, there are a lot of people living on the streets who are looked down upon, and I would like to use my art to paint their stories, to paint their perspectives."
