Camille Pissarro

Mary Cassatt, Paris

Edward Buchanan Cassatt, Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania (by descent from the above)

Elizabeth B. Henry (by descent from the above)

Private Collection, United States (acquired circa 1962 by descent from the above and sold: Christie's, New York, May 4, 2005, lot 2)

Private Collection, England

Acquired from the above in March 2009

 

Camille Pissarro's extensive use of gouache was unusual among the Impressionist painters, and Paysage à Melleray, femme donnant à boire à des chevaux is an exceptional demonstration of his mastery of the medium. The clarity of the atmospheric effects achieved in this gouache is delightfully evocative of a crisp spring day in the French countryside. Pissarro has created an idyllic image of the rural life he found in the region surrounding his friend Ludovic Piette's farm in Montfoucault. 

The composition of the present work is based on an earlier painting of 1876, now in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum in Hanover, which he produced during one of his yearly trips to Piette's farm. In the present rendering of the scene, Pissarro has included a peasant woman attending her livestock instead of the rapidly executed sketch of his son Lucien reclining in the shade beneath the tree in the center of the composition.

The first owner of the present work was the artist Mary Cassatt. A key member of the Impressionist group and important patron in her own right, Cassatt's own work shared Pissarro's inspired use of gouache. This work was then inherited by her nephew Colonel Edward Cassatt, a distinguished soldier. Paysage à Melleray, femme donnant à boire à des chevaux remained within the Cassatt family until 2005.