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Lot Essay
In Paysage à Pontoise, painted circa 1879, Pissarro deftly renders the rich foliage and verdant landscape around Pontoise, a hilltop town situated twenty-five miles northwest of Paris. Pissarro has clustered a group of poplars in the right half of the canvas in his view from Fond de Saint-Antoine at Ennery, leaving room on the left side for an expansive sky and a view of the Church of Saint-Maclou (fig. 1). The row of poplars and the apple tree in the foreground function as a repoussoir, a pictorial device which "pushes back," directing our eye to the small group of buildings in the center of the town of Pontoise dominated by the medieval church’s steeple. In 1879, the town of Pontoise began construction of a new prison which would later dominate the view from Fond de Saint-Antoine and obscure the twelfth century Saint-Maclou. Pissarro returned to this location in Ennery and depicted the changed view in his Vue sur la nouvelle prison de Pontoise, printemps (fig. 2). Designed by the architect Albert Petit, the jail for Val-d'Oise was inaugurated in early 1883, two decades after the construction of a railway bridge which connected Paris to Pontoise. In rendering the progress of the prison construction, Pissarro recorded the changing landscape and swift modernization of the region.
Pontoise, situated on a hill on the right bank of the river Oise, is indelibly associated with Camille Pissarro. As Richard Bretell has pointed out, "Pissarro's eventual choice of Pontoise as 'his' landscape can be considered, at least in part, as an indication of his desire to separate himself from the influence of the recognized landscape masters with whom he worked. Pontoise and its small environs constituted a relatively unrecorded landscape, lacking associations with a painter" (in Pissarro and Pontoise, The Painter in a Landscape, New Haven, 1990, p. 3).
Paysage à Pontoise was painted during a period when Pissarro was increasingly using small, stabbing brushstrokes of color to render his images, prefiguring Neo-Impressionism. By 1879, Pissarro had also benefited artistically from his close relationship with Paul Cézanne. The two artists had worked together in a relationship of intense collaboration between the 1872 and 1877 (fig. 3). As a result, Pissarro's painting became more assertive and his handling more forceful. The broader brushstroke is convincingly realized in Paysage à Pontoise, and Pissarro has paid particular attention to enriching the painted surface with a stippling effect on the trees and the overgrown field.
(fig. 1) Church of Saint-Maclou, Pontoise, circa 1900. Photograph by Eugène Atget.
(fig. 2) Camille Pissarro, Vue sur la nouvelle prison de Pontoise, printemps, 1881. Private collection.
(fig. 3) Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne in the garden at Pontoise, circa 1877.
Pontoise, situated on a hill on the right bank of the river Oise, is indelibly associated with Camille Pissarro. As Richard Bretell has pointed out, "Pissarro's eventual choice of Pontoise as 'his' landscape can be considered, at least in part, as an indication of his desire to separate himself from the influence of the recognized landscape masters with whom he worked. Pontoise and its small environs constituted a relatively unrecorded landscape, lacking associations with a painter" (in Pissarro and Pontoise, The Painter in a Landscape, New Haven, 1990, p. 3).
Paysage à Pontoise was painted during a period when Pissarro was increasingly using small, stabbing brushstrokes of color to render his images, prefiguring Neo-Impressionism. By 1879, Pissarro had also benefited artistically from his close relationship with Paul Cézanne. The two artists had worked together in a relationship of intense collaboration between the 1872 and 1877 (fig. 3). As a result, Pissarro's painting became more assertive and his handling more forceful. The broader brushstroke is convincingly realized in Paysage à Pontoise, and Pissarro has paid particular attention to enriching the painted surface with a stippling effect on the trees and the overgrown field.
(fig. 1) Church of Saint-Maclou, Pontoise, circa 1900. Photograph by Eugène Atget.
(fig. 2) Camille Pissarro, Vue sur la nouvelle prison de Pontoise, printemps, 1881. Private collection.
(fig. 3) Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne in the garden at Pontoise, circa 1877.