Jean-Baptiste-Armand Guillaumin

Durand-Ruel, Paris
Private Collection, Paris (and sold: Tajan, Paris, June 12, 2003, lot 15)
Waterhouse & Dodd, London (acquired at the above sale)
Galerie L’Enfant, Washington, D.C.
Acquired from the above in 2006

Georges Serret & Dominique Fabiani, Armand Guillaumin, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint, Paris, 1971, no. 454, illustrated n.p.

The canvas has been relined. When examined under UV light: there is scattered light minor retouching throughout the sky and some very minor retouching to the trees in the right of the composition. The varnish is clean and the work is ready to hang. The painting is in very good 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Guillaumin was a founding member of the Impressionist movement as well as its longest-surviving proponent. He studied alongside Cézanne and met Pissarro at the Académie Suisse in 1866; he would work alongside them painting en plein air in Pontoise and Auvers-sur-Oise and would later exhibit with them at the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874. His rich paintings of the bucolic French landscape as well as the bustling Paris cityscape gained him much praise and many great accolades throughout his career, and they proved to be of particular interest to Gauguin as well as Theo and Vincent van Gogh.

In 1889 Vincent van Gogh wrote of Guillaumin's landscapes in a letter to his sister: "You must feel the whole of a country—isn't that what distinguishes a Cézanne from anything else? And Guillaumin, whom you cite, he has so much style and such a personal manner of drawing. What you say of Guillaumin is very true, he has found one true thing and contents himself with what he has found, without going off at random after divergent things, and in that way he will keep straight, and become stronger..." (quoted in Christopher Gray, Armand Guillaumin, Chester, Connecticut, 1972, p. 41). While van Gogh clearly admired Guillaumin, the present work is equally indebted to the Post-Impressionist experimentations with color which van Gogh himself pioneered, and which fellow artists such as Valtat and Bonnard embraced (see fig. 1).