拍品專文
In 1885 Pissarro met Paul Signac in Armand Guillaumin's studio. Guillaumin was also to introduce him shortly afterwards to Georges Seurat. Pissarro quickly became acquainted with the Neo-Impressionist style of Divisionism pioneered by Seurat and was one of the first adherents to adopt the pointillist technique in his own work. The older Pissarro became a valuable apologist for the new style and was instrumental in persuading fellow exhibiters to allow Seurat and Signac to show neo-impressionist works, including La Grand Jatte, in the eighth and final impressionist exhibition in May 1886. Pissarro himself also exhibited some neo-impressionist style pictures in the exhibition.
Pissarro evidently experienced considerable difficulties in painting according to neo-impressionist theory and practice. His output dropped significantly at this time. In 1883 and 1884 he had painted respectively 41 and 35 pictures, according to Pissarro & Venturi's catalogue.
In 1887 he managed to produce only 10. He found that the new style, even though his strict adherence was weakening by the summer of 1887, was extremely time-consuming, involving painstaking, meticulous work with layers of tiny, thin brushstrokes being applied one after the other, allowing sufficient time for each session's work to have dried before further touches could be applied. As he wrote to his son Lucien on 10 July 1887 while working on the present picture, 'je travaille à ma Fenaison, c'est décidément bien long et je ne rends pas ce que je veux' (J. Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro, vol. II, Paris, 1986, Lettre 445). As Lloyd and Distrel observe, The frustration recorded in his letters at the slow method of facture was not allowed to interfere with the technical advantages gained from his espousal of new artistic theories ' (op.cit, p. 124). Indeed the present work while retaining the 'chaleur' and brilliance of the work of Seurat displays a varied facture, with the brushstrokes responding in thickness, shape and direction to the properties of what is being depicted. The 'dot' of pointillism proper scarcely appears at all in the present work indicating Pissarro's flexible approach and adoption of his earlier impressionist-based technique as expressed in his letter of 10 July to Lucien, 'Peut-être serai-je forcé d'en revenir à mon ancienne manière' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit., Lettre 446)
La Récolte des Foins, Eragny was begun early in July 1887 according to Pissarro's first reference to the picture in his letter of 6 July 1887 to his son Lucien, 'Je fais une séance de soleil le matin, le reste de la journée je travaille à mes gouaches et à mes toles de figures. J'ai fait des croquis et des études de temps gris pour mes Faneurs [the present work], cela commence à marcher' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit. Lettre 445). These preparatory studies, characteristic of the care with which he approached his major figure composition at this time, have mostly not survived. Joachim Pissarro has brought to our notice a study of the central figure with the pitchfork in a private collection in Montreal. Another similar study was sold at Christie's New York on 17 May 1984, lot 107.
The picture's possible sale was discussed in Pissarro's letter of 24 December, 1887 to the dealer Jacques Dubourg, 'J'ai vu Portier. Vous pouvez prendre ma Fenaison, toile de trente pour montrer à votre amatuer. Portier en avait demandé six cents francs prix maximum. Nous pouvons tenir ce prix et au besoin baisser a cinq ents francs' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit., Lettre 457). Perhaps this 'amateur' was M. Barbanson who then sold it at auction in 1895.
We are grateful to Joachim Pissarro for assistance in cataloguing this lot and also to Caroline Godfroy for provenance information.
Pissarro evidently experienced considerable difficulties in painting according to neo-impressionist theory and practice. His output dropped significantly at this time. In 1883 and 1884 he had painted respectively 41 and 35 pictures, according to Pissarro & Venturi's catalogue.
In 1887 he managed to produce only 10. He found that the new style, even though his strict adherence was weakening by the summer of 1887, was extremely time-consuming, involving painstaking, meticulous work with layers of tiny, thin brushstrokes being applied one after the other, allowing sufficient time for each session's work to have dried before further touches could be applied. As he wrote to his son Lucien on 10 July 1887 while working on the present picture, 'je travaille à ma Fenaison, c'est décidément bien long et je ne rends pas ce que je veux' (J. Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro, vol. II, Paris, 1986, Lettre 445). As Lloyd and Distrel observe, The frustration recorded in his letters at the slow method of facture was not allowed to interfere with the technical advantages gained from his espousal of new artistic theories ' (op.cit, p. 124). Indeed the present work while retaining the 'chaleur' and brilliance of the work of Seurat displays a varied facture, with the brushstrokes responding in thickness, shape and direction to the properties of what is being depicted. The 'dot' of pointillism proper scarcely appears at all in the present work indicating Pissarro's flexible approach and adoption of his earlier impressionist-based technique as expressed in his letter of 10 July to Lucien, 'Peut-être serai-je forcé d'en revenir à mon ancienne manière' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit., Lettre 446)
La Récolte des Foins, Eragny was begun early in July 1887 according to Pissarro's first reference to the picture in his letter of 6 July 1887 to his son Lucien, 'Je fais une séance de soleil le matin, le reste de la journée je travaille à mes gouaches et à mes toles de figures. J'ai fait des croquis et des études de temps gris pour mes Faneurs [the present work], cela commence à marcher' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit. Lettre 445). These preparatory studies, characteristic of the care with which he approached his major figure composition at this time, have mostly not survived. Joachim Pissarro has brought to our notice a study of the central figure with the pitchfork in a private collection in Montreal. Another similar study was sold at Christie's New York on 17 May 1984, lot 107.
The picture's possible sale was discussed in Pissarro's letter of 24 December, 1887 to the dealer Jacques Dubourg, 'J'ai vu Portier. Vous pouvez prendre ma Fenaison, toile de trente pour montrer à votre amatuer. Portier en avait demandé six cents francs prix maximum. Nous pouvons tenir ce prix et au besoin baisser a cinq ents francs' (Bailly-Herzberg, op.cit., Lettre 457). Perhaps this 'amateur' was M. Barbanson who then sold it at auction in 1895.
We are grateful to Joachim Pissarro for assistance in cataloguing this lot and also to Caroline Godfroy for provenance information.