Camille Pissarro

Ernest Hoschedé, Paris (acquired from the artist in 1877 and sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 5-6, 1878, lot 70)

Cherfils (acquired at the above sale)

Aguire Bilbau, Buenos Aires

Lola Echagüe de Martinez Casto (née Lola Santamarina) and Dr. Alfredo M. Echagüe, Buenos Aires (acquired circa 1932 and sold: Parke-Bernet, New York, April 6, 1967, lot 15)

Max M. Vas (acquired at the above sale)

Michael Drinkhouse, New York (sold: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, May 17, 1978, lot 11)

D. Grob, London (acquired at the above sale)

Sale: Sotheby's, London, March 29, 1988, lot 7

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Buenos Aires, Exposición de los Amigos del Arte, 1932, no. 46

Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, El Impressionismo francés en las colecciones argentinas, 1962

Tokyo, Mitsukoshi Gallery , Nihombashi; Hiroshima, Onomichi Municipal Museum; Shizuoka, Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art, Entre ciel et terre: Camille Pissarro et les peintres de la vallée de l'Oise, 2004, no. S-2

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro, and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art – son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 385, catalogued p. 135; vol. 2, no. 385, illustrated pl. 77 (titled Route du fond de l'Hermitage, Pontoise)

Merete Bodelsen, "Early Impressionist Sales in Light of Some Unpublished Procès-Verbaux," The Burlington Magazine, London, June 1968, p. 340

Richard R. Bretell, Pissarro and Pontoise, New Haven and London, 1990, fig. 110, illustrated p. 115

Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, catalogue critique des peintures, vol. II, Paris, 2005, no. 486, illustrated p. 244

Painted at the height of the Impressionist movement in 1877, the present work depicts the environs of Pontoise, where Pissarro lived from 1866 until 1883.  In deciding to move to Pontoise, the artist was partly guided by a desire to separate himself from the influence of his predecessors and the established French landscape painters.  Most importantly, Pontoise and its immediate surroundings had rarely been depicted by Pissarro's predecessors, and this new location was his chance to make his mark among the great landscape painters of France. 

Located twenty-five miles northwest of Paris, Pontoise is built on a hilltop, with the river Oise passing through it.  These geographical features made for a picturesque environment in which to paint en plein air.  The town's economy was based in agriculture and industry, thus offering Pissarro a wide range of subjects to depict.  The series of landscapes that he completed in Pontoise, from the semi-urban genre scenes, views of roads and factories, to farmers working on the fields and isolated landscapes devoid of human presence, reflect the diversity of the the area.

The first owner of this picture was Ernest Hoschedé, the loyal patron of the Impressionists, whose widow, Alice, eventually married Claude Monet.  Hoschedé was one of the first supporters of the Impressionist painters, and his financial backing allowed them to pursue the highly avant-garde, plein-air style for which their work is known.