Camille Pissarro

CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830 1903) Le grand noyer à Éragny, Automne Huile sur toile, marquée du cachet en bas à droite, annoté «Printemps, Eragny (Esquisse), 213 » au dos sur le châssis 38.3 x 46 cm - 15 1/8 x 18 1/8 in. Oil on canvas, stamped lower right and anotated «Printemps, Eragny (Esquisse), 213 » on the reverse of the frame PROVENANCE Collection Paul-Emile Pissarro, par descendance en 1904 A & R Ball, New-York Collection Alice Tully, New-York Vente Christie's, New-York, 10 Novembre 1994 Vente Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, 11 Octobre 1995 Collection privée Vente Sotheby's, Londres, 6 février 2013 Collections Aristophil BIBLIOGRAPHIE Ludovic Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art, Son oeuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, réf n° 742, p. 185, repr. vol. II, pl. 155 Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. III, n° 897, repr. p. 590 CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830-1903) L\’oeuvre de Pissarro est considérable: à l\’heure actuelle, on compte plus de 1500 toiles disséminées dans les plus grands musées et dans des collections particulières. S\’il a fait bon nombre de portraits, de scènes de genres et de natures mortes, Pissarro est connu tout particulièrement pour ses paysages, à travers lesquels il restitue une immense partie des évolutions stylistiques et techniques du XIXe siècle: d\’abord impressionniste aux côtés de Monet, Cézanne et Gauguin, il s\’oriente vers le divisionnisme entre 1880 et 1890. Ce dernier mouvement ne lui permet pas de s\’épanouir pleinement: il en juge le cadre et les principes trop contraignants. C\’est véritablement comme meneur du mouvement impressionniste (il est le seul à participer aux huit expositions du mouvement) que Pissarro se fait reconnaitre auprès de ses contemporains: Cézanne l\’appelle d\’ailleurs le «premier des impressionnistes ». Depuis son enfance aux Antilles danoises jusqu\’à son installation à Paris, l\’artiste suscite l\’admiration de ceux qu\’il rencontre: polyglotte et cultivé, il ne cache pas ses engagement et son militantisme anarchique. Gauguin, Van Gogh et Cézanne comptent parmi ses élèves les plus importants. Ses enfants eux-mêmes reçoivent son enseignement, cinq d\’entre eux embrassent une carrière artistique à sa suite. Pissarro left an enormous body of work: to date, we know of over 1,500 paintings, now in leading museums and private collections. While he painted a large number of portraits, genre scenes and still lifes, he is particularly famous for his landscapes, which largely illustrated the stylistic and technical developments of the 19th century. First an Impressionist alongside Monet, Cézanne and Gauguin, he later turned to Divisionism between 1880 and 1890. But the movement did not allow him to give full rein to his creativity, as he found its framework and principles too constricting. Pissarro established himself with his contemporaries as the true leader of the Impressionist movement, and was the only artist to take part in all eight of its exhibitions. Cézanne called him the «first of the Impressionists\”. From his childhood spent in the Danish Antilles until his move to Paris, the artist aroused the admiration of everyone he met as a cultivated polyglot who boldly stated his commitment and anarchic militancy. Gauguin, Van Gogh and Cézanne were some of his most important students. He also taught his own children, five of whom later became artists in their own right.

HUMAN REFLECTIONS - PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION Camille Pissarro PAYSANNES ASSISES GARDANT DES VACHES 1830 - 1903 signed C. Pissarro. and dated 1886 (lower left) gouache and pencil on linen drawing: 27,6 x 39 cm; 10 7/8 x 15 3/8 in.; sheet: 30,5 x 41,1 cm; 12 x 16 1/8 in. Executed in 1886.

CAMILLE PISSARRO Tête de Femme inclinée. Black chalk on light greenish blue laid paper, double-sided. 305x260 mm; 12x10 1/4 inches. With the artist's initials black ink stamp (Lugt 613a, lower right recto). With a study of a standing female nude seen in profile to the right in black chalk, verso. This drawing will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings by Camille Pissarro in preparation by Dr. Joachim Pissarro; with a copy of Dr. Pissarro's letter of expertise.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) Bords de l'Epte à Êragny, soleil couchant signed and dated 'C. Pissarro. 1897' (lower right) oil on canvas 23 3/4 x 28 7/8 in. (60.2 x 73.2 cm.) Painted in Êragny in 1897 Provenance Juan Cabruja, Paris; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 20 May 1921, lot 38. A. Mille, Paris, circa 1930. Galerie de l'Art Moderne, Paris. Arthur Tooth & Sons, London (no. 4370), by whom acquired from the above, on 12 March 1956. Acquired from the above by the grandfather of the present owner, on 20 March 1956, and thence by descent.

LE CLOCHER DE BAZINCOURT (ÉTUDE) Camille Pissarro 1830 - 1903 stamped with the initialsC.P. (lower right) oil on canvas 65 by 54cm., 25 5/8 by 21 1/4 in. Painted in 1895. Estate of the Artist Jeanne Pissarro-Bonin (the artist's daughter; by descent from the above in 1904) Alexandre Bonin, Paris (by descent from the above; sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26th June 1931, lot 6) Stettiner Collection,Europe Private Collection (by descent from the above; sale: Christie's, London, 10th December1997, lot 124) Purchased at the above sale by the present owner Literature Ludovic Rodo-Pissarro & Lionello Pissarro,Camille Pissarro, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no. 928, p. 209; vol. II, no. 928, illustrated pl. 188 Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts,Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. III, no. 1087, illustrated in colourp. 689 Catalogue Note Dating from 1895, the present work depicts the steeple of the church at Bazincourt, the hamlet neighbouring the village Éragny, where Camille Pissarro resided from 1884. Bathed in warm evening light, this is a subject Pissarro chose to paint numerous times during the last two decades of his life. The artist was delighted with the tranquility of this Normandy environment and relished the endless sources of painterly inspiration it offered. In a letter to his son Lucien, dated 1st March 1884, Pissarro wrote: 'Yes, we\’ve made up our minds on Éragny-sur-Epte. The house is superb and inexpensive: a thousand francs, with garden and meadow' (quoted in J. Pissarro & C. Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, op. cit., p. 499). In 1892, with the financial help of Claude Monet who lived in neighbouring Giverny, Pissarro bought the house his family had been renting for the past eight years; the house exists to this day on a street named after the artist himself. A calm vision of nature, the peaceful luminosity of a pleasant early evening is tangibly conveyed. The church tower sits under a friendly pink-tinged sky, framed by delicate trees. Earthy tones make up the greenery and dashes of blue, white, grey and peach comprise the ever-changing cloudy sky, evoking moments of sunshine followed by shade. The technique used in this work illustrates Pissarro\’s engagement with Neo-Impressionism. In Pissarro\’s opinion, Impressionism was waning by 1883 and under the influence of Georges Seurat, he embraced the Pointillist technique of short, fragmented brushstrokes to capture the scintillating effect of sunlight over a luscious meadow. Seurat proclaimed Pissarro to be the first of the Impressionist painters to convert to the Neo-Impressionist style. In Le Clocher de Bazincourt, the artist used the Pointillist style to create vibrant colour contrasts, innovatively executing marks of yellow and mauve to bring the foliage to life, avoiding a formulaic approach and bringing a sense of spontaneity to the scene. From one of the windows of his house, Pissarro was able to see the steeple of the church, which suggests that the present composition may have been painted directly from his studio. An enchanting portrayal of the rustic French countryside, the dappled effects of sunlight cause the colours to sparkle beautifully, encouraging the viewer to enjoy this intimate vista as much as the artist did. Despite utilising the Pointillist technique, Pissarro\’s interest in the nuances of light and atmospheric changes never faltered and remained an important legacy of his earlier Impressionist style.