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Lot Essay
The authenticity of this work has been kindly confirmed by Joachim Pissaro and Claire Durand-Ruel.
Pissarro was fifty-four when, in 1884, he and his family moved to Eragny - a tiny village between Normandy and the Parisian region. He lived in Eragny longer than in any other location - almost twenty years - and in 1903, the year of his death, he had completed well over 300 paintings of Eragny and its immediate surroundings.
From the late 1880s onwards, it can be said that Pissarro's entire pictorial production in Eragny was almost exclusively oriented towards his exploration of the series. In fact, the first occurrence of the concept of 'series' applied to his Eragny works - not to his cityscapes. The use of the word in Pissarro's work can be traced to the catalogue of La quatrième exposition particulière de M. Camille Pissarro in March 1893, at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. The artist grouped an ensemble of nineteen works with similar motifs to the present painting under the heading 'series de vues de ma fenêtre à Eragny près Gisors (Eure)'. Below this heading, the reader of the catalogue in 1893 could find sub-headings, such as 'Printemps 1892', 'Automne 1892', 'Automne 1892' and so on. In other words, the artist seemed purely intent on depicting the passage of time, the passing of seasons and their transformation of nature.
The present painting depicts the stretch of land which lay in front of his eyes, between his studio and the small village opposite, called Bazincourt, whose church spire can be seen above the horizon line. The fields are covered by waters from the river Eure, which itself runs zig-zag across the middle ground (the painterly subject of the inondation was a popular theme among the Impressionists; Monet explored the theme in 1879 at Vétheuil, and Sisley painted the great floods of 1876 at Port-Marly).
In a letter dated 12 February 1893, Pissarro included the present painting, Inondation soleil couchant, in a detailed list of sixteen paintings to be sold to his dealer, Galerie Durand-Ruel (J. Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro 1891-1894, Vol. III, Paris, 1988, p.311). The previous year, Durand-Ruel had organised an exhibition exclusively devoted to Pissarro which has proven to be quite sucessful, providing the painter, for the first time, with some financial stability.
Pissarro was fifty-four when, in 1884, he and his family moved to Eragny - a tiny village between Normandy and the Parisian region. He lived in Eragny longer than in any other location - almost twenty years - and in 1903, the year of his death, he had completed well over 300 paintings of Eragny and its immediate surroundings.
From the late 1880s onwards, it can be said that Pissarro's entire pictorial production in Eragny was almost exclusively oriented towards his exploration of the series. In fact, the first occurrence of the concept of 'series' applied to his Eragny works - not to his cityscapes. The use of the word in Pissarro's work can be traced to the catalogue of La quatrième exposition particulière de M. Camille Pissarro in March 1893, at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. The artist grouped an ensemble of nineteen works with similar motifs to the present painting under the heading 'series de vues de ma fenêtre à Eragny près Gisors (Eure)'. Below this heading, the reader of the catalogue in 1893 could find sub-headings, such as 'Printemps 1892', 'Automne 1892', 'Automne 1892' and so on. In other words, the artist seemed purely intent on depicting the passage of time, the passing of seasons and their transformation of nature.
The present painting depicts the stretch of land which lay in front of his eyes, between his studio and the small village opposite, called Bazincourt, whose church spire can be seen above the horizon line. The fields are covered by waters from the river Eure, which itself runs zig-zag across the middle ground (the painterly subject of the inondation was a popular theme among the Impressionists; Monet explored the theme in 1879 at Vétheuil, and Sisley painted the great floods of 1876 at Port-Marly).
In a letter dated 12 February 1893, Pissarro included the present painting, Inondation soleil couchant, in a detailed list of sixteen paintings to be sold to his dealer, Galerie Durand-Ruel (J. Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro 1891-1894, Vol. III, Paris, 1988, p.311). The previous year, Durand-Ruel had organised an exhibition exclusively devoted to Pissarro which has proven to be quite sucessful, providing the painter, for the first time, with some financial stability.