Lot Essay
In October of 1883, Pissarro visited Rouen where he created his first series of cityscapes. During his two month stay, he produced thirteen paintings and numerous etchings. The city had long inspired artists, most prominently the Englishmen Turner and Bonington, whose work Pissarro knew, mainly from lithographs. His appreciation for the broad range of subject matter that the city and its environs provided was also shared by Monet, as a letter from Pissaro to Lucien dated 22 October proclaims:
Yesterday I was visited by Monet, his brother and son, Durand and his son. We spent the day together at Delville. The day was beautiful and we went to Canteleu, a village on the outskirts of Delville, on a high hill. We beheld the most wonderful landscape a painter could hope to see. The view in Rouen in the distance with the Seine spread out as calm as glass, sunny slopes, splendid foregrounds; [it] was magical. I will decidedly go to this village to paint next year, it is marvelous. (cite)
The thirteen paintings from 1883 may be considered a proto-series for those of 1896 and 1898, when Pissaro returned to the city, although the emphasis in the 1890s was on the time of day and the weather conditions. In Le Port de Rouen, the artist experiments with light effects and juxtapositions of color, although the contrasting viewpoints of each of the four related compositions also show the artist as a topographer (Pissarro and Venturi, nos. 604-607).
Word of Pissarro's successful work in the city had reached Gauguin via Durand-Ruel who resolved to settle there with his family. Pissarro's letter to his son on 31 October displays the difference between the young naive painter and the hardened mentor of the Impressionist movement:
He is naive enough to think that since the people in Rouen are very wealthy, they can easily be induced to buy some paintings.... Gauguin disturbs me very much, he is so deeply commercial, at least he gives that impression.....
Not that I think that we ought not try to sell, but I regard it a waste of time to think only of selling, one forgets one's art and exaggerates one's value. It is better to get low prices for a while, and even easier, particularly when your work is strong and original, and to go ahead bit by bit, as we do. (cite)
Yesterday I was visited by Monet, his brother and son, Durand and his son. We spent the day together at Delville. The day was beautiful and we went to Canteleu, a village on the outskirts of Delville, on a high hill. We beheld the most wonderful landscape a painter could hope to see. The view in Rouen in the distance with the Seine spread out as calm as glass, sunny slopes, splendid foregrounds; [it] was magical. I will decidedly go to this village to paint next year, it is marvelous. (cite)
The thirteen paintings from 1883 may be considered a proto-series for those of 1896 and 1898, when Pissaro returned to the city, although the emphasis in the 1890s was on the time of day and the weather conditions. In Le Port de Rouen, the artist experiments with light effects and juxtapositions of color, although the contrasting viewpoints of each of the four related compositions also show the artist as a topographer (Pissarro and Venturi, nos. 604-607).
Word of Pissarro's successful work in the city had reached Gauguin via Durand-Ruel who resolved to settle there with his family. Pissarro's letter to his son on 31 October displays the difference between the young naive painter and the hardened mentor of the Impressionist movement:
He is naive enough to think that since the people in Rouen are very wealthy, they can easily be induced to buy some paintings.... Gauguin disturbs me very much, he is so deeply commercial, at least he gives that impression.....
Not that I think that we ought not try to sell, but I regard it a waste of time to think only of selling, one forgets one's art and exaggerates one's value. It is better to get low prices for a while, and even easier, particularly when your work is strong and original, and to go ahead bit by bit, as we do. (cite)