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Lot Essay
In November 1890 Lucien Pissarro moved permanently to London on the advice of his father, Camille, in order to interest dealers in his drawings or at least to make a living giving drawing lessons. It was during this period that he fell in love with Esther Levi Bensusan, whom he had first met in 1883 and later married in August 1892.
The setting is Hyde Park and Camille, who often visited London in the spring, had also spent several afternoons sketching in Hyde Park, and his drawing from 1890, Hyde Park, Londres (Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro son art son oeuvre, Paris, 1939, no.1449) depicts the same tree-lined path seen here in Les Crocus.
The present work is rare in its unusual use of a heavy impasto and as such is an important example of the artist's post neo-Impressionist style. Moreover, it is one of the very few works that Lucien adapted from a woodcut, the figure of the child being almost identical to that in his colour wood-engraving Little May from 1889, first published in The First Portfolio in 1893.
Lucien wrote to his father on 19 April 1891 about Les Crocus, reporting that he would shortly be starting a painting in his studio for exhibition at the end of the year (see Letters, Pissarro Family Archive, pp.206-07).
We are very grateful to Anne Thorold for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
The setting is Hyde Park and Camille, who often visited London in the spring, had also spent several afternoons sketching in Hyde Park, and his drawing from 1890, Hyde Park, Londres (Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro son art son oeuvre, Paris, 1939, no.1449) depicts the same tree-lined path seen here in Les Crocus.
The present work is rare in its unusual use of a heavy impasto and as such is an important example of the artist's post neo-Impressionist style. Moreover, it is one of the very few works that Lucien adapted from a woodcut, the figure of the child being almost identical to that in his colour wood-engraving Little May from 1889, first published in The First Portfolio in 1893.
Lucien wrote to his father on 19 April 1891 about Les Crocus, reporting that he would shortly be starting a painting in his studio for exhibition at the end of the year (see Letters, Pissarro Family Archive, pp.206-07).
We are very grateful to Anne Thorold for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.