Camille Pissarro

M & Mme Hocquard, Paris (sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15th May 1930, lot 85)
Henri Blum, Paris
Sam Salz, New York (acquired from the above in March 1950)
Nathan B. & Frances Spingold, New York (acquired from the above in March 1950. Sold: Sotheby’s, London, 29th November 1976, lot 7)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

(possibly) Paris, 11 Rue Le Peletier, Deuxième exposition des Impressionnistes, 1876, no. 198
Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro, 1930, no. 26
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Nate and Frances Spingold Collection, 1960
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paintings from Private Collections, 1967, no. 79
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Paintings from the Nate B. and Frances Spingold Collection, 1969, no. 24
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art & San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, The New Painting: Impressionism (1874-1886), 1986, no. 34, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no. 268, catalogued p. 117; vol. II, no. 268,  illustrated pl. 53
Ralph E. Shikes & Paula Harper, Pissarro, His Life and Work, New York, 1980, illustrated in colour p. 133
Richard Brettel & Christopher Lloyd, A Catalogue of Drawings by Camille Pissarro in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Oxford, 1980, mentioned under no. 86, p. 126
Ruth Berson, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, San Francisco, 1996, vol. II, no. II-198, illustrated p. 61
Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Critical Catalogue of Paintings, Paris, 2005, vol. II, no. 371, illustrated in colour p. 283

The canvas is lined. Apart from some very minor retouchings around the framing edges, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher in the original, particularly in the greens.
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In 1874, when the present work was painted, Pissarro and his family visited the Piette family in the remote hamlet of Montfoucault, about a two-day journey from their residence in Pontoise. The first Impressionist exhibition, which had opened in the spring, prompted a public outburst of hostility towards the group and their problems were not relieved by the lacklustre auction they held at Drouot. The artist was forced to reconsider his position. Feeling pressure from his supporters and his financial responsibilities to his family, Pissarro believed that the quiet solitude of the farms and enclosed fields of this cul-de-sac on the border of Brittany and Normandy would provide a much needed respite. The decision that the artist took was, for Ralph E. Shikes and Paula Harper, the right one: ‘Pissarro again found a haven with the faithful, generous Piette at Montfoucault. That autumn his paintings were particularly beautiful’ (R. E. Shikes & P. Harper, op. cit., New York, 1980, p. 135).

As early as 1864, Montfoucault had provided Pissarro with a rich variety of views and subjects. Ludovic Piette, at whose farm the artist and his family would reside, worried that Pissarro would miss the metropolis if he permanently relocated to Montfoucault: 'Do not think that the pleasure I would have if you stayed with us makes me so oblivious to your interest as to try to influence you to leave the Paris region while it is in your interest to remain there... I even think that you feel the pulse of life in Paris far more than here, where a benumbing and hopeless languor paralyzes you, no matter what you do' (quoted in Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, p. 138). However, the artist's brief escapes to this secluded area would prove to be personally and professionally cathartic. The tranquil beauty of this idyllic landscape is wonderfully rendered in L’Étang au soleil couchant, Montfoucault, highlighted by the rich golden light dappled across the path and pond. It is a testament to the intuitive manner with which Pissarro responded to the French landscape, a subject which he celebrated throughout his career.

It was, in fact, in Montfoucault that Pissarro began studying local peasant life, and this work is a compelling example of the stylistic development engendered by the artist's encounters in the country. In the present work, he has depicted a peasant woman and child walking past the village pond. Pissarro executed this scene as if the land has been untouched by any meddling industrial presence. Quite the opposite of the 'grands boulevards' and the towering buildings of Paris from which the artist had temporarily sought refuge, Montfoucault continually offered a poignant reminder of the overarching beauty of the natural landscape (figs. 1 & 2). In the present work, the luxuriant tones unify the composition and underscore the affinity of the rich earth and verdant greens of the rural backwaters of the Ile-de-France.

The second Impressionist exhibition was held at Durand-Ruel’s gallery in 1876, in which Ruth Berson suggests the present work was included. A few critics recognised the originality of their endeavour, even if they were slightly reticent to appreciate their finer points. One such review appeared in Le Pays on 10th April 1876, in which the reader was guided through the exhibition's highlights: ‘We are arriving at the only two exhibitors who could truly justify the title of ‘Intransigents’ and renovators of art, Monet & Pisacco [sic]. With them, there is no possible doubt, their palette evokes the aggravated tones of the solar spectrum in order to translate impressions taken in a nature that does not belong to this world’ (G. d’Olby quoted in The New Painting: Impressionism (1874-1886) (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., p. 183). The poet Stephane Mallarmé took it upon himself to write an article in defence of his friend Manet and the Impressionist painters. In discussing the definitive features of Monet’s, Pissarro’s and Sisley’s work, Mallarmé identified the most remarkable feature of Pissarro’s works as his attention to the quality of atmosphere he was depicting: ‘Pizzaro [sic], the eldest of the three, loves the thick shade of summer woods and the green earth, and does not fear the solidity which sometimes serves to render the atmosphere visible as a luminous haze saturated with sunlight’ (S. Mallarmé, quoted in R. Berson, op. cit., vol. I, p. 96).