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拍品專文
In 1885, Pissarro met Paul Signac in Armand Guillaumin's studio. Guillaumin would also introduce him shortly afterwards to Georges Seurat and Pissarro quickly became acquainted with the Neo-Impressionist style of Divisionism, becoming one of the first adherents to adopt the pointillist technique in his own work. Painted in circa 1885, Soleil couchant, hiver is from a series of landscapes Pissarro completed around this time. Having recently moved to the countryside of Eragny-sur-Epte in the Eure, and enthused by his new surroundings, Pissarro displays an abundant interest in the transformation of nature over the course of the seasons and the changing light and colours. The quick short brushstrokes and individual dabs of pigment certainly display Pissarro’s move towards Divisionism. However, while the present work retains some of the intensity and carefully considered application of paint displayed in the work of Seurat, it also 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 indicating Pissarro's flexible approach and adoption of his earlier impressionist-based technique.
In Soleil couchant, hiver, Pissarro uses vivid brushstrokes enlivening the grass and the trees and giving life to the landscape, indicative of his and indeed many of the Impressionist painters in the early 1880s. These were significant years of reconsideration, as Monet and Renoir ventured to the South, Pissarro remained in the environs of Paris, concentrating on the development of his technique. The present work clearly illustrates the artist's development during this period. While the lush and tactile qualities draw the eye to the surface of the canvas, Pissarro retains a balance between the physical nature of the paint itself and complex spatial effects within the pictorial frame. Moreover, "regarding the compositions, there is less emphasis on recession and spatial depth. The basic elements - foreground, middle distance and background - tend to be flattened, so that the design is read upwards as a series of horizontal bands. Pissarro's technique continues to evolve in favor of small, evenly distributed, and heavily loaded brushstrokes" (quoted in ‘Camille Pissarro, Arts Council of Great Britain’, London, 1981, p. 116).
Soleil couchant, hiver does not only display how Pissarro was developing his Neo-Impressionist style, it also presents a bold shift in his use of colour. Expressive and lively, far from the melancholy palette which inhabited the works of his preceding period, acid yellow, orange, and mauve pigments vividly capture the sense of a glowing sunset on a winter’s day. These qualities place this picture both at the height of his first Impressionist phase and precede his experiments with pointillism which would become fully fledged a few years later. It therefore comes as no surprise that this work was formerly in the collection of Harriet E. Walker Henderson, the granddaughter of renowned collector Thomas Barlow Walker, founder and namesake of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and one of the most-visited modern art museums in the United States.
In Soleil couchant, hiver, Pissarro uses vivid brushstrokes enlivening the grass and the trees and giving life to the landscape, indicative of his and indeed many of the Impressionist painters in the early 1880s. These were significant years of reconsideration, as Monet and Renoir ventured to the South, Pissarro remained in the environs of Paris, concentrating on the development of his technique. The present work clearly illustrates the artist's development during this period. While the lush and tactile qualities draw the eye to the surface of the canvas, Pissarro retains a balance between the physical nature of the paint itself and complex spatial effects within the pictorial frame. Moreover, "regarding the compositions, there is less emphasis on recession and spatial depth. The basic elements - foreground, middle distance and background - tend to be flattened, so that the design is read upwards as a series of horizontal bands. Pissarro's technique continues to evolve in favor of small, evenly distributed, and heavily loaded brushstrokes" (quoted in ‘Camille Pissarro, Arts Council of Great Britain’, London, 1981, p. 116).
Soleil couchant, hiver does not only display how Pissarro was developing his Neo-Impressionist style, it also presents a bold shift in his use of colour. Expressive and lively, far from the melancholy palette which inhabited the works of his preceding period, acid yellow, orange, and mauve pigments vividly capture the sense of a glowing sunset on a winter’s day. These qualities place this picture both at the height of his first Impressionist phase and precede his experiments with pointillism which would become fully fledged a few years later. It therefore comes as no surprise that this work was formerly in the collection of Harriet E. Walker Henderson, the granddaughter of renowned collector Thomas Barlow Walker, founder and namesake of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and one of the most-visited modern art museums in the United States.