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Lot Essay
In 1899, Camille Pissarro painted his eighteen-year-old daughter, Jeanne, while quietly reading in the richly appointed interior of the family’s apartment in Paris. This pretty teenager, dressed simply in a blouse, skirt and pinafore, is absorbed in the red cloth-bound volume in her hand; she appears unaware that her father is observing her and painting her likeness. The composition is a sweet, colorful and light-filled one, animated by Pissarro’s typically vibrant Impressionist brushwork.
Jeanne Marguerite Eva Pissarro, lovingly nicknamed ‘Cocotte’ by her family, was Pissarro’s seventh child—his third and only surviving daughter. Jeanne’s older sisters, Adèle Emma and Jeanne Rachel, known as Minette, had both died as children in the early 1870s. Cocotte was born in 1881 and much beloved by her father, who encouraged her intellectual and creative interests. She appears as the primary subject in several of her father’s paintings as a young girl and as a teenager; of all of Pissarro’s children, Cocotte appears the most frequently. Jeanne’s portrait was also painted by Théo van Rysselberghe in May 1895, when the Belgian Neo-Impressionist painter visited the Pissarro family at their home in the suburb of Eragny (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).
Pissarro, in search of new subject matter beyond the fields of Eragny, decided to rent an apartment at 204 rue de Rivoli in Paris in 1899—bringing his wife, Julie, and their youngest children with him. As he wrote to his oldest son, the painter Lucien Pissarro, “I am going to buy some furniture so that we can go to Paris every winter as soon as the bad weather returns…I am also hoping that your mother, Cocotte and Paul will be less bored than if they stayed on their own in Eragny, which is really not very jolly in winter” (quoted in J. Pissarro and C. Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, op. cit., p. 103). While in Paris, Pissarro undertook a series of views of the Tuileries Gardens and the Musée du Louvre, which he could see from the window of the apartment. The artist lived and worked in these rented lodgings from January to June 1899. After spending that summer in Eragny, he returned again to Paris in November 1899 through May 1900 to continue the series—examples of which now belong to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford.
Pissarro was clearly enamored with the Parisian cityscape; in the present work, however, he turned inwards to the urban apartment he shared with his family. The salon is flooded with a cool, clear daylight, illuminating the boldly patterned textiles of the carpet, fauteuil and canapé upon which Jeanne sits. The blue walls are hung with several unframed canvases of varying sizes—undoubtedly recently finished works by the artist himself. Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, authors of the Pissarro catalogue raisonné, have identified at least one of the paintings on the wall to the right of Jeanne as Le Jardinier, Soleil d’après-midi, Eragny (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart).
This painting remained in Jeanne Pissarro’s collection throughout her life; the work was purchased by Wildenstein & Co., Inc. in Paris about a year before her death in 1948. Jeanne Pissarro dite Cocotte, lisant was then bought from Wildenstein by Daniel Maggin, a major collector of Impressionism and the chairman of the board of trustees at Cooper Union in New York, and his wife Estelle. The painting passed by descent to their only son, Donald Maggin. The latter kept his parents’ collection largely intact until his estate sale at Christie’s in May 1995, when the painting was acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty.
Jeanne Marguerite Eva Pissarro, lovingly nicknamed ‘Cocotte’ by her family, was Pissarro’s seventh child—his third and only surviving daughter. Jeanne’s older sisters, Adèle Emma and Jeanne Rachel, known as Minette, had both died as children in the early 1870s. Cocotte was born in 1881 and much beloved by her father, who encouraged her intellectual and creative interests. She appears as the primary subject in several of her father’s paintings as a young girl and as a teenager; of all of Pissarro’s children, Cocotte appears the most frequently. Jeanne’s portrait was also painted by Théo van Rysselberghe in May 1895, when the Belgian Neo-Impressionist painter visited the Pissarro family at their home in the suburb of Eragny (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston).
Pissarro, in search of new subject matter beyond the fields of Eragny, decided to rent an apartment at 204 rue de Rivoli in Paris in 1899—bringing his wife, Julie, and their youngest children with him. As he wrote to his oldest son, the painter Lucien Pissarro, “I am going to buy some furniture so that we can go to Paris every winter as soon as the bad weather returns…I am also hoping that your mother, Cocotte and Paul will be less bored than if they stayed on their own in Eragny, which is really not very jolly in winter” (quoted in J. Pissarro and C. Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, op. cit., p. 103). While in Paris, Pissarro undertook a series of views of the Tuileries Gardens and the Musée du Louvre, which he could see from the window of the apartment. The artist lived and worked in these rented lodgings from January to June 1899. After spending that summer in Eragny, he returned again to Paris in November 1899 through May 1900 to continue the series—examples of which now belong to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford.
Pissarro was clearly enamored with the Parisian cityscape; in the present work, however, he turned inwards to the urban apartment he shared with his family. The salon is flooded with a cool, clear daylight, illuminating the boldly patterned textiles of the carpet, fauteuil and canapé upon which Jeanne sits. The blue walls are hung with several unframed canvases of varying sizes—undoubtedly recently finished works by the artist himself. Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, authors of the Pissarro catalogue raisonné, have identified at least one of the paintings on the wall to the right of Jeanne as Le Jardinier, Soleil d’après-midi, Eragny (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart).
This painting remained in Jeanne Pissarro’s collection throughout her life; the work was purchased by Wildenstein & Co., Inc. in Paris about a year before her death in 1948. Jeanne Pissarro dite Cocotte, lisant was then bought from Wildenstein by Daniel Maggin, a major collector of Impressionism and the chairman of the board of trustees at Cooper Union in New York, and his wife Estelle. The painting passed by descent to their only son, Donald Maggin. The latter kept his parents’ collection largely intact until his estate sale at Christie’s in May 1995, when the painting was acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty.