Lot Essay
Montfoucault was a farm owned by Pissarro's friend Ludovic Piette (1826-1878), near the village of Foucault, located on the borders of La Mayenne and L'Orne, between Brittany and Normandy. Piette, who inherited the family estate in Montfoucault in 1854, was also a painter, exhibiting regularly at the Salon during the 1860s and showing 30 paintings in the 3rd Impressionist exhibition in 1877. Pissarro and Piette met at the Académie Suisse in the early 1860s and enjoyed an enduring friendship until the latter's death in 1878. A letter written to Pissarro by Piette in December 1871 shows how close their friendship was: "Vous devez travailler à mort, oh si nous étions tous deux ensemble d'ou je viens! Quelles splendides choises à faire, on pourrait se croire, dans ces lieux, reporté à mille ou deux mille ans en arrière: plus trace des hommes; tout sauvage comme un siècle ou deux aprés le deluge; des arbres et des rochers et d'une couleur!..." (J. Bailly-Herzberg ed., Mon cher Pissarro. Lettres de Ludovic Piette à Camille Pissarro, Paris, 1985, p. 67). In another letter written in May-June of 1874 after the disastrous First Impressionist Exhibition, Pissarro wrote, "Et vous mon pauvre vieux lutteur! Jeune par la cervelle, sous des cheveux trop tôt blanc! Qu'est-il advenu de votre tentative si bien commencée, je veux parler de votre société et de votre exposition de boulevard? Le succés a-t-il couronne vos efforts, je veux dire le succés pecuniaire car l'autre vous était acquis. Les recettes ont-elles payé vos frais? Y a-t-il eu continuation de bonne entente? Perservez-vous? J'attends de vous confirmation de ces espérances." (op. cit., p. 110)
Pissarro decided to accept the invitation from Piette to stay at his estate. He felt a change of environment and the company of his friend might uplift him from the depression and disappointment brought on my a combination of his daughter Minette's death from a respiratory infection in March and the failure of the First Impressionist Exhibition. On 20 October 1874, Pissarro wrote to the critic Théodore Duret, "I'm letting you know that I'm departing for my friend Piette's locality; I won't be back before January. I'm going there to study the figures and animals of the true countryside." (R. Thomson, Camille Pissarro, Impressionism, Landscape and Rural Labour, London, 1990, p. 40). This was to be the first of a series of visits he made to Piette's farm in the autumn of each year from 1874-1877, terminated by Piette's death in 1878. Piette's friendship proved to be crucially important because of his financial assistance as well as the hospitality showed to the painter and his family at Montfoucault.
Montfoucault was remote, set well back from a lane linking the local villages in an area of gently undulating landscape with woods and hedgerows and centred on a large farmhouse with a walled garden. Pissarro worked hard in and around the farm and on 11 December 1874, he reported back to Duret: "'I'm not working badly here, and I've set myself figures and animals. I've several genre paintings, (but) I'm starting timidly on that branch of art, so distinguished by artists of the first rank.' Duret replied with encouragement three days later: "Are you painting two and four legged beasts? Pure landscape is invaded from so many sides, but here is a gap to fill and continue in the line of Paul Potter, Cuyp, Troyon, (and) Millet, while of course being modern and different.'" (op.cit., p. 41)
From the following autumn to 1876, Pissarro began to draw more, as figures such as those in the present picture became a more important element in his rural compositions. The result of his sojourns at Montfoucault can be appreciated in the scenes of harvest in the fields. Pissarro's work at Montfoucault is characterised by "his increasing use of preparatory drawings and oil sketches which suggests a retreat to more conventional practices, yet this active reversion to the palette knife and a varied range of textures infers a challenging ambition to find a handling appropriate to subjects from 'the true countryside'...His very conscious rehearsal, at Duret's urging, of kinds of the composition which recall Troyon or Millet suggests he was applying his 'modern' touch and colour to stereotypical rural motifs the better to face the market in difficult times." (Thomson, op. cit., p. 45)
Christopher Lloyd states further, "The seasons spent painting at Montfoucault had two results. Firstly, he had an opportunity to study rural life at first hand. This was to be significant in the long term when Pissarro moved from Pontoise further into the country to Eragny-sur-Epte and began for the second time to paint rural subjects. Secondly, the range of colour within the pictures undertaken at Montfoucault increases considerably and, together with the technical advances made in the company of Cézanne, allowed Pissarro to achieve those outstanding landscapes that bring the 1870s to a glorious close." (Camille Pissarro, London, 1981, p. 79)
This recently rediscovered picture was included in Pissarro & Venturi's 1938 catalogue as no. 366 but with no reproduction printed. Joachim Pissarro has kindly confirmed the authenticity of the picture.
Pissarro decided to accept the invitation from Piette to stay at his estate. He felt a change of environment and the company of his friend might uplift him from the depression and disappointment brought on my a combination of his daughter Minette's death from a respiratory infection in March and the failure of the First Impressionist Exhibition. On 20 October 1874, Pissarro wrote to the critic Théodore Duret, "I'm letting you know that I'm departing for my friend Piette's locality; I won't be back before January. I'm going there to study the figures and animals of the true countryside." (R. Thomson, Camille Pissarro, Impressionism, Landscape and Rural Labour, London, 1990, p. 40). This was to be the first of a series of visits he made to Piette's farm in the autumn of each year from 1874-1877, terminated by Piette's death in 1878. Piette's friendship proved to be crucially important because of his financial assistance as well as the hospitality showed to the painter and his family at Montfoucault.
Montfoucault was remote, set well back from a lane linking the local villages in an area of gently undulating landscape with woods and hedgerows and centred on a large farmhouse with a walled garden. Pissarro worked hard in and around the farm and on 11 December 1874, he reported back to Duret: "'I'm not working badly here, and I've set myself figures and animals. I've several genre paintings, (but) I'm starting timidly on that branch of art, so distinguished by artists of the first rank.' Duret replied with encouragement three days later: "Are you painting two and four legged beasts? Pure landscape is invaded from so many sides, but here is a gap to fill and continue in the line of Paul Potter, Cuyp, Troyon, (and) Millet, while of course being modern and different.'" (op.cit., p. 41)
From the following autumn to 1876, Pissarro began to draw more, as figures such as those in the present picture became a more important element in his rural compositions. The result of his sojourns at Montfoucault can be appreciated in the scenes of harvest in the fields. Pissarro's work at Montfoucault is characterised by "his increasing use of preparatory drawings and oil sketches which suggests a retreat to more conventional practices, yet this active reversion to the palette knife and a varied range of textures infers a challenging ambition to find a handling appropriate to subjects from 'the true countryside'...His very conscious rehearsal, at Duret's urging, of kinds of the composition which recall Troyon or Millet suggests he was applying his 'modern' touch and colour to stereotypical rural motifs the better to face the market in difficult times." (Thomson, op. cit., p. 45)
Christopher Lloyd states further, "The seasons spent painting at Montfoucault had two results. Firstly, he had an opportunity to study rural life at first hand. This was to be significant in the long term when Pissarro moved from Pontoise further into the country to Eragny-sur-Epte and began for the second time to paint rural subjects. Secondly, the range of colour within the pictures undertaken at Montfoucault increases considerably and, together with the technical advances made in the company of Cézanne, allowed Pissarro to achieve those outstanding landscapes that bring the 1870s to a glorious close." (Camille Pissarro, London, 1981, p. 79)
This recently rediscovered picture was included in Pissarro & Venturi's 1938 catalogue as no. 366 but with no reproduction printed. Joachim Pissarro has kindly confirmed the authenticity of the picture.