Lot 35
  • 35

Camille Pissarro

Estimate
800,000 - 1,200,000 USD
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Description

  • Camille Pissarro
  • Mère et enfant (Julie Pissarro et son fils Ludovic-Rudolphe dit Rodo)
  • Signed C. Pissarro and dated 78 (lower right)
  • Distemper on canvas
  • 31 7/8 by 25 5/8 in.
  • 81 by 65.1 cm

Provenance

Mme Camille Pissarro, Paris (inherited from the artist)

Ludovic-Rudolphe Pissarro, Paris (by descent from the above)

Mme Ludovic-Rudolphe Pissarro, Paris (by descent from the above and until at least 1956)

O'Hara Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above circa 1988

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Nunès et Fiquet, Catalogue de la Collection de Madame Veuve C. Pissarro, 1921, no. 30

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Camille Pissarro, Centenaire de la naissance de l'artiste, 1930, no. 44

Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Pissarro et ses fils, 1936, no. 26

Paris, Galerie Bernheim Jeune, Portraits de Femmes et d'Enfants, 1936, no. 26

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Camille Pissarro, 1956, no. 1325

Literature

Georges Lecomte, Camille Pissarro, Paris, 1922, illustrated

Charles Kunstler, Camille Pissarro, Paris, 1930, no. 8, illustrated n.p.

A Paris, December 14, 1934, illustrated

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art - Son Oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 1325, catalogued p. 265; vol. II, no. 1325, illustrated pl. 260

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art - Son Oeuvre, vol. I, San Francisco, 1989, no. 1325, catalogued p. 265; vol. II, no. 1325, illustrated pl. 260

Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, no. 331, illustrated p. 279



Catalogue Note

The present work is one of the extraordinary compositions in which Pissarro turns his attention to his own family as subject. The canvas depicts the artist's wife Julie and their son Ludovic-Rodolphe (b. 1878), known as Rodo.  Rodo was among the youngest of the couple's eight children, he was featured more frequently in the artist's paintings than any of the others. Later in life, Rodo would become an artist and publish the first edition of his father's catalogue raisonné in 1939.  

According to Joachim Pissarro, Julie was forty years old at the time this picture was painted, and little Rodo, who was born that November, was only a few weeks old.  While Pissarro's many children were central to his production throughout his career, it was not until he portrayed his later offspring that he focused on the intimate details of childhood existence as depicted in this charming composition.