Camille Pissarro

Julie Pissarro, France (the artist’s wife, by descent from the artist in 1904)
Sale: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Collection Camille Pissarro, 3rd December 1928, lot 46
Galerie de l’Elysée (Alex Maguy), Paris (purchased at the above sale) 
Wildenstein, London
The Hon. W. S. Phillips, London (purchased from the above on 2nd June 1950)
Lady Jean Phillips, London (by descent from the above)
Alex Reid & Lefevre, London (acquired from the above on 22nd November 1963)
The Hon. Mrs S. W. H. Marcow (acquired from the above on 22nd November 1963)
Gemäldegalerie Abels, Cologne (acquired circa 1983)
Linda R. Silverman, New York (acquired circa 1984)
Acquired from the above by the late owners in 1984

Paris, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Exposition rétrospective d’œuvres de Camille Pissarro, 1914, no. 82
London, National Gallery; Birmingham, City Museum and Art Gallery; Nottingham, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery; Stockport, War Memorial Buildings; Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery; Bootle, Bootle Museum; Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery; Northampton, Art Gallery; Blackpool, Grundy Art Gallery & Rochdale, Rochdale Corporation Art Gallery, Paintings by Camille Pissarro, 1931-1932 (no. 29 in London; no. 24 in Birmingham; no. 17 in Nottingham; no. 16 in Stockport; no. 18 in Sheffield; no. 15 in Bootle; no. 6 in Leeds & no. 1 in Northampton, Blackpool & Rochdale)
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Experts’ Choice: 1000 Years of the Art Trade, 1983
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Monet to Matisse: A Century of Art in France from Southern California Collections, 1991

Maurice Monda, ‘Revue des ventes de décembre. Lundi 3 décembre, Galeries Georges Petit. La Collection Camille Pissarro’, in Le Figaro artistique, 10th January 1929, p. 221
Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro. Son art – son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no. 483, catalogued p. 149; vol. II, no. 483, illustrated pl. 98 (titled Femme et enfant dans les fleurs)
Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro. Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. II, no. 591, illustrated in colour p. 401

The present work depicts the artist’s wife Julie nursing their son Ludovic-Rodolphe, who was barely a year old at the time, in the midst of a blossoming garden. Probably painted at their family home in Pontoise, this composition combines the nature with the man-made, reflecting the artist’s belief of the harmony of human beings and nature. Rendered from a distance, Julie is portrayed in a private moment, fully absorbed in her motherly activity, enhancing the intimate atmosphere of the work. Executed in the decade crucial in the development of Impressionism, Julie et Ludovic-Rodolphe Pissarro dans les fleurs displays a rich treatment of the flowers executed in quick dabs of paint in a manner similar to that of Impressionist painters such as Monet and Renoir.    

 

Pissarro’s direct observation of nature and the effects of light on the colourful flower blossoms evoke the vibrant energy of spring, exemplifying the artist’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, orange and red flowers and the light clothing of the two figures in the centre. As Christoph Becker explains: ‘There was no season or time of the 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’ (C. Becker, et al., Camille Pissarro, Ostfidern, 1999, p. 105).