Camille Pissarro

Maurice Leclanché, Paris (sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 6, 1924, lot 67)

S. Sevadjian, Paris (acquired at the above sale and sold: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 1-3, 1927, lot 38)

Gabriel Picard, Paris (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection

Paris, Galerie André Weil, Exposition Pissarro, Au profit du Musée de Jérusalem, 1950, no. 13 (titled Vue des environs de Pontoise) 

"La collection Leclanché" (Les grandes ventes prochaines) in Le Figaro Artistique, October 30, 1924, no. 46, illustration of verso p. 39

"Calendriers des ventes" in Le Figaro Artistique, November 6, 1924, illustration of verso p. 62

Curiosa, "Revue des ventes de la semaine. Jeudi 6 Novembre" in Le Figaro Artistique, November 20, 1924, no. 96, illustration of verso p. 93

Ludovico-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son oeuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, nos. 337 & 376, recto & verso catalogued pp. 128 & 133; vol. II, nos. 337 & 376, recto & verso illustrated pls. 67 & 75

Ludovico-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son oeuvre, San Francisco, 1989, vol. I, nos. 337 & 376, recto & verso catalogued pp. 128 & 133; vol. II, nos. 337 & 376, recto & verso illustrated pls. 67 & 75

Richard R. Brettell, Pissarro and Pontoise: The Painter in a Landscape, New Haven & London, 1990, recto mentioned p. 175

Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Critical Catalogue of Paintings, Paris, 2005, vol. II, nos. 434 & 435, recto & verso illustrated p. 317

Painted in 1876, the present work depicts a landscape near the town 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, the established French landscape painters, and to depict an environment previously scarcely recorded by other masters. Located some twenty-five miles northwest of Paris, Pontoise was built on a hilltop, with the river Oise passing through it, elements which made it a highly picturesque environment in which to paint en plein-air. The town's economy included agriculture as well as industry, and offered Pissarro a wide range of subjects, from crowded semi-urban genre scenes, views of roads and factories, to farmers working on the fields and isolated landscapes devoid of human presence.

Unlike many of his works executed in this region, in which he often depicted the local farmers going about their daily activities, in this canvas from 1876 the artist depicted a panoramic vista of the region. He seems to have positioned his easel on a hilltop, offering a sweeping view of the town nestled between the hills and the meadows stretching towards the horizon.

In August 1872, Cézanne moved to Pontoise, where he joined Pissarro, and soon afterwards settled in the neighboring town of Auvers-sur-Oise. During his stay in the area with his wife Hortense and their son Paul, Cézanne frequently walked to Pontoise where he painted alongside Pissarro, often depicting the same views. It was under Pissarro's influence and guidance that he painted from nature, paying considerable attention to rendering the effects of light on the landscape and houses. This mutual influence and collaboration, nurtured at Pontoise, would prove to be a relationship pivotal to the development of Impressionism. Jennifer Field wrote: "Pissarro's and Cézanne's artistic dialogue around the time of the Third Impressionist Exhibition was fostered by their shared experiences in the region of Auvers-sur-Oise and Pontoise.... Their shared interest in the harmony of the landscape and the effects of light on the hillsides and meadows can be seen in Pissarro's L'Hermitage in Summer, Pontoise and in Cézanne's Auvers-sur-Oise, Panoramic View." (J. Field, in Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarro 1865-1885 (exhibition catalogue), Musée d'Orsay, Paris, p. 163) The present composition is a double-sided work featuring Paysage à l'Hermitage, Pontoise on the recto while the verso features a playful depiction of a  woman bathing. Double-sided works were not uncommon for the artist at this time due to economic necessity. Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts address this in their description of the present composition: "Due no doubt to a shortage of canvases and money in the years 1876-78, the artist was sometimes obliged to use both sides of the support." (J. Pissarro & C. Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, op. cit., p. 317).