67.2001: Landscape at l'Hermitage, Pointoise

Identification and Creation

Object Number

67.2001

People

Camille Pissarro, Danish (St. Thomas, Danish W. Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) 1830 - 1903 Paris)

Title

Landscape at l'Hermitage, Pointoise

Other Titles

Original Language Title: Paysage à l'Hermitage, Pontoise

Classification

Prints

Work Type

print

Date

1881

Places

Creation Place: Europe

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/169177

Physical Descriptions

Technique

Drypoint

Dimensions

plate: 10.8 x 12.5 cm (4 1/4 x 4 15/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: C. Pissarro
• inscription: lower margin, brown ink, hand written, signed: 1er état C. Pissarro / Paysage à l'hermitage / sur cuivre 26 [state description, signature, title, description, number in oeuvre (?)]
• inscription: verso, graphite, hand written, French: épreuve unique de 1er Etat à la poinre sèche / Cette épreuve a été exposée sous le no 141 à la 5e Expo. des Impressionistes en 1880 [probbaly written by Guérin, a later owner of the print and an Impressionist scholar]
• inscription: verso, graphite, hand written: 33304 [dealer's stock number?]
• collector's mark: lower left corner, black ink, stamped: collector's mark of Marcel Guérin
• inscription: upper right corner, graphite, hand written: L.D. 28 / I unique [Delteil cataloguing information]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Marcel Louis Guérin, (L. 1872a), Collector.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

State

i/iii

Standard Reference Number

Del., Leymarie P. 28

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Anonymous Loan in memory of Marjorie Allen Benedict

Object Number

67.2001

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Commentary

This is a rare print with a unique provenance. It is the only impression of this quintessentially Impressionist composition that was taken before the artist reworked the plate heavily, ruining the sense of light, air, and distance that is so magically captured here. Further, this was the impression -- and not one from the reworked plate -- that the artist selected to hang with others of his prints, paintings, and drawings, in the 1880 exhibition of works by the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, Etc., that is, the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition. Several of the more famous Impressionist artists had already forsaken the organization, including Monet and Cezanne, but Gauguin, Degas, and Cassatt remained; and the last three exhibited a number of prints, which, with the Pissarros', must have been a feature of the exhibition. Given their printmaking history -- they formed a virtual collective of etchers -- perhaps the selection of this print, to join the others, was a group choice.

It should be noted that although the print bears the inscription "Paysage à l'hermitage", the title of the print as given in the 5th Impressionist exhibition catalogue, under #141, is "Côteaux de l'Hermitage, Pontoise" ("Hillsides at l'Hermitage, Pontoise").

In addition, the impression comes from the collection of Marcel Guérin (1873-1948). Although he was too young to have appreciated the print in its earliest manifestation, he became a major scholar of Impressionism, with a specialty in the prints of Forain, Gauguin, and Degas.

Publication History

• Catalogue de la 5me exposition de peinture...Du 1er au 30 Avril 1880 [5th Impressionist exhibition], exh. cat., Société anonyme des artistes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc. (Paris, France, 1880), No. 141

Verification Level