Lot Essay
A photo-certificate from the Wildenstein Institute dated Paris, September 4, 1997 accompanies this painting, which will be included in the forthcoming revised edition of their Gauguin catalogue raisonné.
Gauguin began to take painting lessons from Pissarro in 1874. At that time he was working as an insurance agent on the Paris stock exchange for Maison Bertin and enjoying a prosperous life with his wife Mette, the daughter of a Danish minister. During this period he collected Impressionist works by Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cézanne, Monet and Sisley, which he purchased from Durand-Ruel. Following the collapse of the Bourse in January 1882, Gauguin's financial career began to take second place to his artistic ambitions; he was then becoming more self-assured as an artist, with encouragement from Pissarro in particular. Pissarro's style and technique were to have a strong influence on Gauguin, although the older artist did advise him against working "according to rules and principles extraneous to your own temperament. You must paint what you yourself observe and feel... Before nature one must be daring and risk making mistakes..." (quoted in E. Fezzi, op. cit., p. 4).
Between June 15 and July 5, 1883 the two artists worked alongside each other in Osny (fig. 1), painting en plein air in order to explore the challenges of capturing the landscape in the changing light of day. Ferme à Osny probably depicts the Moulin de la Couleuvre (fig. 2), which stands on the rue des Deux-Ponts leading from Pontoise to Osny. Cézanne had previously painted this building when he was living in Pontoise between May and October of 1881 (Rewald, no. 483; Nationalgalerie, Berlin). In the present work Gauguin has built up layers of color to achieve a varied tonal composition, most notable in the central facade and roof of the building, where subtle dashes of pink, yellow, blue and mauve blend to create an entrancing image over which the viewer's eye lingers. There are also noticeable highlights of blue on the small hunched figure on the far bank, and on the bridge to the right which the figure prepares to cross. The sky creates the feel of a bright summer day, the light airy clouds tinged with pink.
It was in November 1883, after his stay in Osny with Pissarro, that Gauguin decided to move his family to Rouen, where the cost of living was much lower than Paris. His wife, however, was appalled at this idea, insisting that she take the children to her parents' house in Copenhagen, which she did in July 1884. Gauguin joined her in November, staying only until June of the following year, when he returned to Paris with his son Clovis.
Gauguin first exhibited with the Impressionist group at their fifth exhibition in 1880, and continued to exhibit with them in 1881, 1882 and 1886, their eighth and last exhibition. Discussing the pictures that Gauguin exhibited in 1886 the critic Gustave Geoffroy wrote, "There are some still-lifes among the nineteen canvases Gauguin exhibits, but there are mainly landscapes. He has searched out willows, ponds, farmyards and roads... There is firmness in most of these studies and an understanding of the dominant effect." Another critic, Marcel Fouquier, wrote on May 16, 1886, "Gauguin, Guillaumin, Schuffenecker and Signac, newcomers to Impressionism, like all converts, are consumed with a fine ardour, a burning desire to go further than anyone and to make Pissarro stop, bemused, in front of their canvases. None of them lacks talent" (quoted in C.S. Moffett, exh. cat., The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, 1986, pp. 456-457).
(fig. 1) Camille Pissarro, Le ruisseau à Osny, 1883 Private Collection
(fig. 2) Postcard, Moulin de la Couleuvre, circa 1900
Gauguin began to take painting lessons from Pissarro in 1874. At that time he was working as an insurance agent on the Paris stock exchange for Maison Bertin and enjoying a prosperous life with his wife Mette, the daughter of a Danish minister. During this period he collected Impressionist works by Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cézanne, Monet and Sisley, which he purchased from Durand-Ruel. Following the collapse of the Bourse in January 1882, Gauguin's financial career began to take second place to his artistic ambitions; he was then becoming more self-assured as an artist, with encouragement from Pissarro in particular. Pissarro's style and technique were to have a strong influence on Gauguin, although the older artist did advise him against working "according to rules and principles extraneous to your own temperament. You must paint what you yourself observe and feel... Before nature one must be daring and risk making mistakes..." (quoted in E. Fezzi, op. cit., p. 4).
Between June 15 and July 5, 1883 the two artists worked alongside each other in Osny (fig. 1), painting en plein air in order to explore the challenges of capturing the landscape in the changing light of day. Ferme à Osny probably depicts the Moulin de la Couleuvre (fig. 2), which stands on the rue des Deux-Ponts leading from Pontoise to Osny. Cézanne had previously painted this building when he was living in Pontoise between May and October of 1881 (Rewald, no. 483; Nationalgalerie, Berlin). In the present work Gauguin has built up layers of color to achieve a varied tonal composition, most notable in the central facade and roof of the building, where subtle dashes of pink, yellow, blue and mauve blend to create an entrancing image over which the viewer's eye lingers. There are also noticeable highlights of blue on the small hunched figure on the far bank, and on the bridge to the right which the figure prepares to cross. The sky creates the feel of a bright summer day, the light airy clouds tinged with pink.
It was in November 1883, after his stay in Osny with Pissarro, that Gauguin decided to move his family to Rouen, where the cost of living was much lower than Paris. His wife, however, was appalled at this idea, insisting that she take the children to her parents' house in Copenhagen, which she did in July 1884. Gauguin joined her in November, staying only until June of the following year, when he returned to Paris with his son Clovis.
Gauguin first exhibited with the Impressionist group at their fifth exhibition in 1880, and continued to exhibit with them in 1881, 1882 and 1886, their eighth and last exhibition. Discussing the pictures that Gauguin exhibited in 1886 the critic Gustave Geoffroy wrote, "There are some still-lifes among the nineteen canvases Gauguin exhibits, but there are mainly landscapes. He has searched out willows, ponds, farmyards and roads... There is firmness in most of these studies and an understanding of the dominant effect." Another critic, Marcel Fouquier, wrote on May 16, 1886, "Gauguin, Guillaumin, Schuffenecker and Signac, newcomers to Impressionism, like all converts, are consumed with a fine ardour, a burning desire to go further than anyone and to make Pissarro stop, bemused, in front of their canvases. None of them lacks talent" (quoted in C.S. Moffett, exh. cat., The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, 1986, pp. 456-457).
(fig. 1) Camille Pissarro, Le ruisseau à Osny, 1883 Private Collection
(fig. 2) Postcard, Moulin de la Couleuvre, circa 1900