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Lot Essay
In 1873, the landscape of Pontoise was substantially altered by the construction of a large factory, Chalon et Cie., directly across the Oise river from the Hermitage quarter where Pissarro and his family lived. In response to this development, which gave this stretch of the river an industrial character for the first time, Pissarro painted a series of four canvases that prominently featured the vast new usine (Pissarro and Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, nos. 297-300). In 1876, after concentrating exclusively on rural imagery for two years, the artist returned to the motif of the factory, producing Le quai du Pothuis à Pontoise and four closely related views (Pissarro and Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, nos. 454-458). Yet there was an important distinction between the two series: "In contrast to the pictures of 1873, Pissarro placed himself in such a position that the prominent foliage of the Ile du Pothius actually screens the factory buildings from view," Richard Brettell has explained. "The pictures represent in this way a contextual rejection of a once-powerful object. The factory is designified by its setting" (op. cit., 1990, pp. 94-95).
Pontoise, as the name implies, lies in a commanding position on the banks of the Oise, at the edge of the Vexin plateau nineteen miles northwest of Paris. Pissarro had lived at Pontoise between October 1866 and January 1869, and he returned in April 1872, shortly before construction on the Chalon et Cie. factory began. The ensuing decade that the artist spent at Pontoise was one of the most prolific periods in his career, during which he fully developed his Impressionist technique. His sustained focus on Pontoise and its environs resulted in over three hundred paintings and represents the most enduring portrait of a particular locale by any French painter during the Impressionist period.
Pissarro painted Le quai du Pothuis from the left bank of the Oise, looking upstream. From this position, once again, the foliage of the Ile du Pothuis largely obscures the view of the Chalon et Cie. factory. The left half of the composition is given over to the depiction of the rural enclave of L'Hermitage, which largely retained its traditional agrarian character in the artist's day. Ivory colored houses are topped with vibrant blue roofs, and the green riverbank slopes downward to the water's edge. A single figure stands on the bank gazing at the flowing river, with its colorful play of reflections. Within this homage to rural solitude, however, there are inescapable signs of modernity. Emerging around the corner of the bank and moving toward the viewer is a barge, of the sort that carried the regional grain harvest down the Oise to the Seine and on to Paris. The factory's smokestack, moreover, maintains a strong linear presence in the painting's composition, echoed by the mast of the barge and another smokestack in the distance. Plumes of smoke emitted from the factory sweep through the picture's sky, which is painted in gestural swirls.
Pontoise, as the name implies, lies in a commanding position on the banks of the Oise, at the edge of the Vexin plateau nineteen miles northwest of Paris. Pissarro had lived at Pontoise between October 1866 and January 1869, and he returned in April 1872, shortly before construction on the Chalon et Cie. factory began. The ensuing decade that the artist spent at Pontoise was one of the most prolific periods in his career, during which he fully developed his Impressionist technique. His sustained focus on Pontoise and its environs resulted in over three hundred paintings and represents the most enduring portrait of a particular locale by any French painter during the Impressionist period.
Pissarro painted Le quai du Pothuis from the left bank of the Oise, looking upstream. From this position, once again, the foliage of the Ile du Pothuis largely obscures the view of the Chalon et Cie. factory. The left half of the composition is given over to the depiction of the rural enclave of L'Hermitage, which largely retained its traditional agrarian character in the artist's day. Ivory colored houses are topped with vibrant blue roofs, and the green riverbank slopes downward to the water's edge. A single figure stands on the bank gazing at the flowing river, with its colorful play of reflections. Within this homage to rural solitude, however, there are inescapable signs of modernity. Emerging around the corner of the bank and moving toward the viewer is a barge, of the sort that carried the regional grain harvest down the Oise to the Seine and on to Paris. The factory's smokestack, moreover, maintains a strong linear presence in the painting's composition, echoed by the mast of the barge and another smokestack in the distance. Plumes of smoke emitted from the factory sweep through the picture's sky, which is painted in gestural swirls.