Camille Pissarro

Julie Pissarro, Paris (wife of the artist)

Lucien Pissarro, London (by descent from the above in 1921)

Mrs. Lucien Pissarro, London (acquired from the above in 1944 and until at least 1950)

Jacques Lindon, New York

Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired from the above on May 17, 1965)

Walter Bick, Ontario (acquired from the above on January 27, 1969)

Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Berlin

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1979

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Camille Pissarro, 1892, no. 29

London, Miller, Three Generations of Pissarro: Camille, Lucien, Orovida, 1943, no. 18

London, The Leicester Galleries, Three Generations of Pissarro: Camille, Lucien, Orovida, 1943, no. 66

London, Matthiesen Gallery, A Camille Pissarro Exhibition, 1950, no. 22

London, O'Hana Gallery, Three Generations of Pissarros (1830-1954), 1954, no. 10

Wuppertal, Von der Heydt-Museum, Pissarro, Der Vater des Impressionismus, 2014-15, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro, vol. III, 1891-1894, Paris, 1988, no. 750, mentioned p. 193 (no. 18)

Alfred Ernst, "Camille Pissarro," La Paix, Paris, February 3, 1892, mentioned p. 2

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 668, catalogued p. 175; vol. II, illustrated pl. 138 

Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, vol. III, Paris, 2005, no. 795, illustrated in color p. 522

Painted in 1885, Prairies à Gisors is a wonderfully rich and atmospheric depiction of a meadow near Pissarro’s home in Éragny, a small village situated along the banks of the river Epte.  Pissarro moved from Pontoise to Éragny, located a few miles from Gisors, in the spring of 1884 and remained there until his death in 1903. In July 1892, Pissarro purchased the home with financial help from Claude Monet, who lived in neighboring Giverny. Pissarro was delighted with the tranquility of his new environment, and the endless source of inspiration it offered him. In a letter to his son Lucien dated March 1, 1884, the artist wrote: “Yes, we’ve made up our minds on Éragny-sur-Epte. The house is wonderful and not too dear: a thousand francs with garden and fields.  It is about two hours from Paris. I found the country much more beautiful than Compiègne, although that day it was still pouring torrents.  But here comes the spring, the fields are green, outlines are delicate in the distance.  Gisors is superb” (John Rewald, Camille Pissarro, Letters to his Son Lucien, New York, 1943, p. 58).

Éragny soon became the focal point of Pissarro’s art and provided him with endless pictorial inspiration.  He painted the garden and meadow in front of his house, the neighboring villages of Gisors and Bazincourt, and the villagers at work in the fields. He never tired of the region, and painted numerous pastoral scenes exploring the effects of sunlight in various seasons and weather conditions. According to Joachim Pissarro, this pristine rural landscape was in a sharp contrast to the artist's former residence in the town of Pontoise.  In this new and inspiring environment, Pissarro began to develop the divisionist techniques that would fully emerge in his Neo-Impressionist paintings of the late 1880s.

The critic Alfred Ernst wrote in his 1892 review for La Paix about the splendor of this picture, noting: "Nothing is as rich, as abundant, as fresh and profound as the Garden at Gisors, where the air circulates, caresses the thick greenery, under a vast, infinitely light sky" (quoted in J. Pissarro & C. Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, op. cit., vol. III, Paris, 2005, p. 795). In the present work, the viewer looks out across a large meadow toward the bell tower of the church of Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais; the dungeon of Gisor's medieval fortress is also visible amidst the treetops.

The present work was one of the select canvases that the artist kept for himself.  It was later inherited by several generations of descendants, who kept it until the mid 20th century.