Lot Essay
Pissarro lived in Louveciennes from the spring of 1869 until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July, 1870. This village, a suburb of Paris near the Seine river, was occupied by the Prussians during the siege of Paris. Pissarro and his family took refuge in Montfoucault, then moved on to London, returning to Louveciennes in the summer of 1871 to find his house in a state of utter dereliction, his studio ransacked and most of his paintings and drawings destroyed. Pissarro stayed in Louveciennes until 1872 before moving to Pontoise where he remained for the next eleven years.