Paul Gauguin

Émile Schuffenecker, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
Amédée Schuffenecker, Paris (acquired from the above circa 1904)
Durand-Ruel, Paris
Simon Bauer, Paris (acquired from the above in August 1930)
Durand-Ruel, Paris
H.T. Clifton, Liverpool, United Kingdom (acquired from the above in August 1937)
M. Alberto Phelps, Caracas (acquired circa 1964)
Thence by descent

Paris, 5ème exposition de peintre Impressionistes, 1880, no. 59 (probably)
Amsterdam, Stedelijkmuseum, Van Gogh et ses contemporains, 1930, no. 150

John Rewald, Gauguin, Paris, 1938, illustrated pl. 60
John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, New York, 1961, illustrated p. 410
Georges Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris, 1964, no. 35, illustrated p. 17
Daniel Wildenstein, Gauguin: Premier itinéraire d'un sauvage, catalogue de l'oeuvre peint (1873-1888), vol. I, Paris, 2001, no. 53, illustrated p. 59

The work is in very good condition. The canvas has been lined. The surface is clean and richly textured and the pigments are vibrant. Under UV light: certain original pigments fluoresce. There is a very minor area of retouching in the lower left corner.
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.
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The bucolic regions of rural France provided a richly verdant subject for Gauguin's landscape of 1879. Indeed, the artist began collecting Impressionist art in the late 1870s, and acquired several paintings by Pissarro in particular; the acquisition of these works resulted in an invitation to Pontoise, the small village to the northwest of Paris which was home to the older artist and one of the early centers of Impressionism. Furthermore, Gauguin had been profoundly influenced by the 1879 Impressionist exhibition, particularly by the Monet and Pissarro gallery, and in this work he imitates the thick impasto of the heavily worked paint surfaces created by these artists. 

Unlike that of these other artists, however, Gauguin's vision was soon to extend beyond scenes of Parisian modern culture and the glory of French agricultural productivity—a vision which would ultimately define the Post-Impressionist movement and take him further afield in the later years of his career. In his subjects of this period we can see his escapist inclinations beginning to develop, with his paintings increasingly focusing on the natural world. While the plein-air subject matter and brushwork in this picture are typical of the Impressionist mode, Gauguin's palette of rich blues and greens points toward the vivid colors that would dominate his pictures in the years to follow.

The present work was originally in the collection of Émile Schuffenecker, Gauguin's close friend and a fellow Post-Impressionist painter. The two met working for the same stock brokerage in the early 1870s and studied painting side by side at the Académie Suisse. Their friendship was memorialized in Gauguin's L'Atelier de Schuffenecker of 1889 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; see fig. 1), though it should also be recognized that Schuffenecker's formidable art collection included some of Gauguin's best-known works including Le Christ jaune of 1889 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York) and many unique ceramics, in addition to several major oils by Vincent van Gogh.