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Lot Essay
Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts and Joachim Pissarro have confirmed the authenticity of this painting which will be included in the supplement to the Pissarro catalogue critique being prepared under the sponsorship of the Wildenstein Institute.
The present painting is an exciting rediscovery. Bought by the ground-breaking American collector John Nicholas Brown from Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1892 (fig. 1), it has remained in the Brown family since that date. La prairie à Eragny, temps gris was brought to Rhode Island and joined Brown's important collection of Impressionist paintings, including works by Monet, Cézanne and Sisley. This picture is also an extremely rare example of Pissarro working within the pointillist idiom. The sharp decrease in Pissarro's output between 1886 and 1890, brought about by the increased length of time that the artist needed to execute divisionist pictures where colors cannot be applied wet-in-wet, mean that only nine paintings are dated to 1888, four of which are today housed in public collections in Philadelphia, Oxford, Paris and Dallas (P&D-R.S 825, 850, 855 & 857).
The pointillist phase of Pissarro's career at the end of the 1880s was all the more notable for the fact that Pissarro was in his mid-fifties when he adopted this bold new style. In 1885 Pissarro met Signac, who in turn introduced him to Seurat, thus exposing Pissarro, the soi-disant 'father' of Impressionism, to the latest avant-garde ideas. Impressed by the theories of 'optical mixture,' as well as the classical sense of composition that informed Seurat's work, Pissarro immediately introduced the technique into his own art and encouraged the two younger artists to exhibit their canvases alongside his at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886. This met with fierce opposition from the old-guard and led to Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Caillebotte abstaining from showing.
Pissarro met Signac for the first time in Guillaumin's studio, and in spite of the age difference--Signac was then in his early twenties, the same age as Pissarro's son Lucien--the two immediately became friends. (By contrast, Seurat, the arch-theorist, remained a more distant character.) By the mid-1880s, Pissarro, was seeking a more concrete vision than the extemporary philosophy of pure Impressionism, and had already been trying to increase the intensity of the color in his paintings by using tiny brushstrokes, often of contrasting colors. On being introduced to Seurat and his theories of divisionism, Pissarro had applied the rational system of complementaries and optical mixture, adapted from the researches of Rood and Chevreul, to his own art. However, rather than the codified dots that came to characterize Seurat's more systematic pointillism, Pissarro presented his intermingled colors with fine, small brushstrokes, creating a weft that, with the counterpoint of the contrasting hues, lends great vibrancy.
Pissarro's firm belief in his divisionist painting was immediately apparent. In 1886, at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition, he insisted on being exhibited along with his friends, Seurat and Signac and his son Lucien, in a separate room. And, such was the critical backlash against the display, the men soon came to be seen as a movement apart. The confidence Pissarro had in this new style was clear in his passionate defense of the group's innovations, as well as his exposure of these works at other exhibitions.
(fig. 1) The original invoice to Monsieur J.N. Brown from Durand-Ruel, Paris. BARCODE 20627201
(fig. 2) John Nicholas Brown on the day of his marriage to Natalie Bayard Dresser, 1897. BARCODE 20627263
The present painting is an exciting rediscovery. Bought by the ground-breaking American collector John Nicholas Brown from Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1892 (fig. 1), it has remained in the Brown family since that date. La prairie à Eragny, temps gris was brought to Rhode Island and joined Brown's important collection of Impressionist paintings, including works by Monet, Cézanne and Sisley. This picture is also an extremely rare example of Pissarro working within the pointillist idiom. The sharp decrease in Pissarro's output between 1886 and 1890, brought about by the increased length of time that the artist needed to execute divisionist pictures where colors cannot be applied wet-in-wet, mean that only nine paintings are dated to 1888, four of which are today housed in public collections in Philadelphia, Oxford, Paris and Dallas (P&D-R.S 825, 850, 855 & 857).
The pointillist phase of Pissarro's career at the end of the 1880s was all the more notable for the fact that Pissarro was in his mid-fifties when he adopted this bold new style. In 1885 Pissarro met Signac, who in turn introduced him to Seurat, thus exposing Pissarro, the soi-disant 'father' of Impressionism, to the latest avant-garde ideas. Impressed by the theories of 'optical mixture,' as well as the classical sense of composition that informed Seurat's work, Pissarro immediately introduced the technique into his own art and encouraged the two younger artists to exhibit their canvases alongside his at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886. This met with fierce opposition from the old-guard and led to Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Caillebotte abstaining from showing.
Pissarro met Signac for the first time in Guillaumin's studio, and in spite of the age difference--Signac was then in his early twenties, the same age as Pissarro's son Lucien--the two immediately became friends. (By contrast, Seurat, the arch-theorist, remained a more distant character.) By the mid-1880s, Pissarro, was seeking a more concrete vision than the extemporary philosophy of pure Impressionism, and had already been trying to increase the intensity of the color in his paintings by using tiny brushstrokes, often of contrasting colors. On being introduced to Seurat and his theories of divisionism, Pissarro had applied the rational system of complementaries and optical mixture, adapted from the researches of Rood and Chevreul, to his own art. However, rather than the codified dots that came to characterize Seurat's more systematic pointillism, Pissarro presented his intermingled colors with fine, small brushstrokes, creating a weft that, with the counterpoint of the contrasting hues, lends great vibrancy.
Pissarro's firm belief in his divisionist painting was immediately apparent. In 1886, at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition, he insisted on being exhibited along with his friends, Seurat and Signac and his son Lucien, in a separate room. And, such was the critical backlash against the display, the men soon came to be seen as a movement apart. The confidence Pissarro had in this new style was clear in his passionate defense of the group's innovations, as well as his exposure of these works at other exhibitions.
(fig. 1) The original invoice to Monsieur J.N. Brown from Durand-Ruel, Paris. BARCODE 20627201
(fig. 2) John Nicholas Brown on the day of his marriage to Natalie Bayard Dresser, 1897. BARCODE 20627263