If the palette knife favours the interpenetration of pigments, it also facilitates the interpenetration of pictorial planes. As applied byPissarro, it seems to pull together all the features of his landscapes, obliterating distances as well as individual textures. The result is not unlike a tapestry, although the air still circulates freely among the various forms.

In this view of the Hermitage at Pontoise the climbing path to the right is divested of all earthy heaviness and seems to be a luminous ribbon adorning the fresh greens of shrubs and trees. The edge of a rock, barely distinguishable in the midst of these greens, appears on the left side of the path, rising from what looks like a pool behind the tree trunks. But such is the unifying propensity of the palette knife technique that path, rock, pool, and vegetation are barely distinct from each other as they are fused in the glimmering light. Only the houses with their colourful roofs, perceived through an opening among the trees, constitute an easily recognisable element and a distinct accent in this dazzling weave of bright colours and diffuse forms.