.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Pommiers Pontoise is one of seventeen canvases, which survive from Pissarro's Pontoise period, most of which he painted just north of the town, between the village and the neighbouring hamlet of L'Hermitage. Pissarro first moved to Pontoise in October 1866 where he rented a house in the rue du Fond de l'Hermitage with his mistress and their two children until 1868.
The present work depicts the 'Maison du Pre Gallien', a simple home in Pontoise near the remains of a sixteenth-century fortification called 'La Citadelle'. Pissarro's first view of the same subject was executed in 1866 and was one of his earliest pieces painted in Pontoise (fig. 1). In principle, the compositions of the two paintings are very similar but here we see that, two years later, Pissarro has considerably opened and liberated his brushwork to create a very different mood in the painting. There are clear signs that Pissarro is moving towards Impressionism in the sense that he is more interested in capturing the essence of his subject, rather than the detail.
Emile Zola was particularly sensitive to Pissarro's adaptation of a freer painting technique and described, in his celebrated Salon essay of 1868, how the artist was extending the boundaries of modern painting: "The artist concerns himself with solemn truth only, with consciousness; he places himself before a wall of nature, he devotes himself to the work of interpreting horizons in their severe breadth, without seeking to put there the least delight of his invention. He is neither poet nor philosopher, but simply a naturalist, maker of skies and land" (R. Z. De Lue, "Pissarro, landscape, vision, and tradition", The Art Bulletin, 19 December 1998, p. 4).
Zola's emphasis on the truthfulness and directness of Pissarro's paintings was close to the painter's own conception of his mission. In a letter to his son Lucien, Pissarro concluded: "What is necessary is to prepare the grounds with truly felt works. There is no better method, everything else is superfluous, observation and sensation are the only real forces' (C. Lloyd, Pissarro, Geneva, 1981, p. 62).
The present work depicts the 'Maison du Pre Gallien', a simple home in Pontoise near the remains of a sixteenth-century fortification called 'La Citadelle'. Pissarro's first view of the same subject was executed in 1866 and was one of his earliest pieces painted in Pontoise (fig. 1). In principle, the compositions of the two paintings are very similar but here we see that, two years later, Pissarro has considerably opened and liberated his brushwork to create a very different mood in the painting. There are clear signs that Pissarro is moving towards Impressionism in the sense that he is more interested in capturing the essence of his subject, rather than the detail.
Emile Zola was particularly sensitive to Pissarro's adaptation of a freer painting technique and described, in his celebrated Salon essay of 1868, how the artist was extending the boundaries of modern painting: "The artist concerns himself with solemn truth only, with consciousness; he places himself before a wall of nature, he devotes himself to the work of interpreting horizons in their severe breadth, without seeking to put there the least delight of his invention. He is neither poet nor philosopher, but simply a naturalist, maker of skies and land" (R. Z. De Lue, "Pissarro, landscape, vision, and tradition", The Art Bulletin, 19 December 1998, p. 4).
Zola's emphasis on the truthfulness and directness of Pissarro's paintings was close to the painter's own conception of his mission. In a letter to his son Lucien, Pissarro concluded: "What is necessary is to prepare the grounds with truly felt works. There is no better method, everything else is superfluous, observation and sensation are the only real forces' (C. Lloyd, Pissarro, Geneva, 1981, p. 62).