Camille Pissarro

Paul-Emile Pissarro (the artist's son, by descent from the artist in 1904)
Mrs Murray Danforth, Providence, Rhode Island
Robert Lebel, Paris & New York
Knoedler, New York (acquired from the above on 2nd April 1946)
Fine Art Associates, New York (acquired from the above in September 1946)
Pedro Vallenilla, Caracas
Schöneman Galleries, New York
J. A. MacAuley, Winnipeg, Canada
E. J. Van Wisselingh & Co, Amsterdam (acquired from the above in 1958)
Mrs D. H. Vermeulen, Hilversum, The Netherlands (acquired from the above)
E. J. Van Wisselingh & Co, Amsterdam (acquired from the above in 1971)
Acquired form the above by the family of the present owner in 1972

Amsterdam, E. J. Van Wisselingh, Maîtres Français XIXieme et XXieme siècles, 1971, no. 31
Amsterdam, E. J. Van Wisselingh, Maîtres Français XIXieme et XXieme siècles, 1972, no. 27

Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Camille Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Paris, 2005, vol. II, no. 402, illustrated p. 298

The canvas is lined. There is a thick layer of milky varnish preventing UV light from fully penetrating, however UV examination reveals some strokes of retouching along all four edges and to a vertical line running through the centre of the composition. There is a network of stable hairline vertical craquelure with some associated small spots of paint loss, notably in the foreground towards the lower edge; there is some further in-painting to the thickest lines of craquelure. There is some minor paint shrinkage in the areas of thickest impasto towards the upper left corner and the lower centre. The surface is richly textured and this work is in overall good condition.
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Painted circa 1873 in the build up to the height of the Impressionist movement, Camille Pissarro’s Le Fond de Saint-Antoine à Pontoise is a charming depiction of an area of parkland in the environs of Pontoise where Pissarro lived from 1866 until 1883. Pissarro’s move to Pontoise allowed him to experiment freely in the surroundings of these new landscapes, distancing himself from his previous engagement with the Barbizon artists and producing inspired and innovative works. As Joachim Pissarro observed: ‘During his years in Pontoise, Pissarro was deeply involved with the Impressionist group and was seen not only as a committed Impressionist artist until at least 1882, but also as an ardent defender of the group's function as an alternative to the Salons. In fact, he created the legal structure of the Impressionist group by establishing the only legal document defining its purpose and aim. He was the only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions’ (Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, p. 90).

Pissarro’s enchanting representations of nature en plein air were inspirited by his ambition to portray the sensations evoked by the ambient environment. The artist explained: ‘persistence, will, and free sensations are necessary, one must be undetermined by anything but one’s own sensation’ (quoted in Karen Levitov and Richard Shiff, Camille Pissarro, Impressions of City & Country (exhibition catalogue), The Jewish Museum, New York, 2008, p. 4). In the present work, Pissarro skilfully captures the lively colours and textures of the peaceful and picturesque landscape. Imbued with an atmosphere of gentle serenity, Le Fond de Saint-Antoine à Pontoise is an exquisite example of Pissarro’s landscapes from the early 1870s and reveals his mastery of the genre.