Camille Pissarro

Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired directly from the artist on 3rd December 1892)
Huinck & Scherjon, Amsterdam (acquired from the above on 13th April 1931)
J. W. Verloop, Bilthoven (acquired circa 1933)
Acquired by the present owner circa 1950

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Œuvres récentes de Camille Pissarro, 1893

Ludovic Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no 777, catalogued p. 190; vol. II no. 777, illustrated pl. 160
Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. III, no. 967, illustrated p. 659

The canvas is lined. There do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. There are some tiny residues of old discoloured varnish to the impasto paint areas. This work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue.
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Le Grand noyer, gelée blanche Éragny is a sparkling, poetic depiction of a bright winter's day centred on a walnut tree in the rolling country landscape close to Éragny.

Pissarro settled in the village of Éragny after leaving Pontoise in 1882 and was to remain there for the rest of his life, creating his largest and most significant body of work in the landscape genre. The present work was painted at the height of Pissarro's Post-Impressionist style and characterizes the luminous and flickering qualities of his handling of paint from this period.

Joachim Pissarro describes Pissarro's production in Éragny: 'Unlike Pontoise whose tensions were those of a suburban town, semi-rural and semi-urban, in Éragny no signs of industry could be observed for miles. Varied expanses of pasture and cultivated land complete the visual field. However Éragny's earthly space is not banal. For twenty years Pissarro concentrated on this very confined area, on the visual material offered by the stretch of meadows lying in front of him, informed by populars, gates, the river, and produced over two hundred paintings of these motifs. His representation of these fields and gardens constitute the most spectacularly intense effort to 'cover' a particular given space in his career' (Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, p. 225).

Clearly the subject of the majestic walnut tree, dwarfing the surrounding fruit trees held a particular power for Pissarro, as he returned to the motif in at least two subsequent works. The present painting is testament to this and to the beauty of the region Pissarro strove so hard to capture.