Camille Pissarro

Estate of the artist

Julie Pissarro (the artist's widow)

Paul-Émile Pissarro (inherited from the above in 1921 and until at least 1930)

René Druet, Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1971

Paris, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Exposition rétrospective  d'oeuvres de Camille Pissarro, 1914, no. 35

London, The Leicester Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Camille Pissarro, 1920, no. 65

Paris, Galerie Nunès & Fiquet, Exposition de la collection de Madame Veuve C. Pissarro, 1921, no. 8

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro, 1930, no. 46

Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Les Premières Époques de Camille Pissarro, (1858-84), 1936,  no. 31

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Paintings and Drawings by Camille Pissarro, 1937, no. 7

Paris, Galerie André Weil, Pissarro, 1950, no. 16

Paris, Galerie de l'Elysée, Maîtres Impressionnistes et contemporains dans un cadre ancien, 1952

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Monet to Matisse: French Art in Southern California Collections, 1991

J.M.B., The Outlook, London, February 7, 1914, p. 171

Maurice Hamel, "Camille Pissarro, Exposition rétrospective de ses oeuvres," Les Arts, Paris, March 1914, p. 30

The Times, London, May 14, 1920, p. 19

Sir Claude Phillips, "Art Exhibitions. Camille Pissarro," The Daily Telegraph, London, May 24, 1920, p. 6

M.T.H.S. The Westminster Gazette, June 9, 1920, p. 8

Poulain, Comoedia, February 22, 1930, p. 3

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro, and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art – son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 383, catalogued p. 135; vol. II, no. 383, illustrated (titled Poiriers en fleurs à l'Hermitage)

Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, catalogue critique des peintures, vol. II, Milan, 2005, no. 493, illustrated p. 348

The natural beauty of the French countryside was the subject of many of Pissarro’s finest compositions.  In Le jardin de Maubuisson, Pontoise, poiriers en fleur, Pissarro’s direct observation of nature and the effects of light on the fresh pear blossoms recreate the vibrant energy of spring.  Painted in 1877, the year of the third Impressionist exhibition, the present work exemplifies Pissarro’s skill at capturing the interplay of light and shadow.  Applying the paint onto the canvas with dappled strokes, he recreates the effect of the sun as it reflects off the white blossoms, echoed in the crisp, bright clouds above them.  As Christoph Becker explains, “There was no season or time of day that Pissarro did not portray, indeed he would impatiently wait for certain atmospheric changes, so that he could set up his easel in the open air and return to work with palette and brush” (Christoph Becker, et al., Camille Pissarro, Ostfidern, 1999, p. 105).  Combining the richness and vibrancy of the landscape with the man-made, the artist celebrates the harmony of man and nature which was central to his beliefs.

The present work shows a view of the Jardin de Maubuisson, a name given to a cluster of kitchen gardens at l’Hermitage near the town of Pontoise, overlooked by houses on the rue du Haut-de-l’Hermitage, such as the one visible here in the upper right, whose distinctive blue roof can be seen in several of Pissarro’s renderings of this region.  Located some twenty-five miles northwest of Paris, Pontoise was built on a hilltop, with the river Oise passing through it, elements which made it a highly picturesque environment in which to paint en plein-air. The town’s economy included agriculture as well as industry, and offered Pissarro a wide range of subjects, from crowded semi-urban genre scenes, views of roads and factories, to farmers working on the fields and isolated landscapes devoid of human presence.  Depicting an everyday scene from the l’Hermitage, where Pissarro lived from 1866 until 1883, the present work is characteristic of his suburban views painted in this area. As Joachim Pissarro observed: “Pissarro composed a poetical-pictorial ensemble with resounding evocative power. There emerged several possibilities: he may be seen at times creating an equilibrium between architecture and nature; the jardins potagers (kitchen gardens) offer a privileged vantage point from which to study such contrasts” (J. Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, p. 115).