Camille Pissarro

Sale: Galeries Georges Petit, Paris, 19th March 1894, lot 33
Theodore Duret, Paris (purchased at the above sale)
Bisson, Paris
Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris (acquired circa 1937)
Acquired by the family of the present owners in 1945

London, Galerie Rosenberg & Helft, Ltd., Exhibition of Works from Ingres to van Gogh, 1937, no. 22
Bern, Kunstmuseum, Camille Pissarro, 1957, no. 56

Ludovic-Rodo & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art, son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, illustrated p. 154
Merete Bodelsen, 'Early Impressionist Sales 1874-94 in the Light of Some Unpublished Procès-Verbaux', in The Burlington Magazine, June 1968, pp. 344-345
Andrea P.A. Belloli et al., A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984, p. 200, note 1
Christopher Lloyd (ed.), Studies on Camille Pissarro, London, 1987,
no. 28, p. 73
Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro: Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. II, no. 633, illustrated p. 424

The canvas is not lined and there do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. Apart from scattered fine lines of stable craquelure in places, this work is richly textured and is in overall very good original condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Rue des roches au Valhermeil, Auvers sur Oise is an accomplished composition which encapsulates the technical mastery and creative vivacity of one of the founding fathers of Impressionism. Executed in 1880, the work’s stippled brushwork is made up of terse, dynamic strokes which create a shimmering, condensed surface. This technique marked a break from the smoother application of paint and more subdued tones that had characterised the artist’s work in the late 1870s, when Pissarro had exhibited in the fifth Impressionist exhibition. The lively application of paint instils this work with the motion and textures of everyday life: the rough stonework of the buildings, the gently swaying grass on the hill, the idle passing of the cloud in the sky. The viewer is immersed in the smells and sounds of village life, at once at ease with the figures portrayed with an enlightening simplicity by the artist. The critic J.-K. Huysmans praised Pissarro's approach, stating: ‘From close up [the painting] is like brickwork, a strange wrinkled [patchwork], a stew of colours of all kinds covering the canvas with lilac, Naples yellow, madder-red, and green; at a distance, it is the air that moves, it is the sky that is boundless, it is nature that palpitates...’ (Joris-Karl Huysmans, ‘L'exposition des indépendants en 1881,’ cited in Charles Moffett, The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Washington, D.C., 1986, p. 347).

Pissarro’s affinity with the quotidian was a key feature of his compositions with much of his early œuvre focusing on portraying ordinary people, without grandeur or artifice. This theme he returned to throughout his career, choosing to live in the rural countryside around Pontoise, North of Paris, from 1866 to 1868 and again from 1872 to 1882. The artist enjoyed the humble routine of arable life, which he viewed as the antithesis to the pressures of urban modernity. Pissarro celebrates, as Robert Herbert suggested, 'ideals of health, honest labour and dignity which he set against the pollution and degraded labour of the city' (Robert Herbert, 'City vs. Country: The Rural Image in French Painting from Millet to Gauguin', Artforum 2, 1970, pp. 44-55). Rue des roches au Valhermeil, Auvers sur Oise is a testament to the values which Pissarro held dearly and the artistic movement in which he played such a pivotal role.