Le Jardin de Pissarro, quai du Pothuis à Pontoise (1881)

Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903)

Le Jardin de Pissarro, quai du Pothuis à Pontoise (Pissarro’s Garden, Quai du Pothuis in Pontoise)
1881
Oil on canvas, 66 x 54.4 cm
Private collection

Verso:

Deux esquisses d’autoportrait

Esquisse d’autoportrait I (Self-portrait sketch 1)

Esquisse d’autoportrait II (Self-portrait sketch 2)

“From [Pissarro], Gauguin learnt how to choose which colours to put onto canvas. […] What is more, Pissarro taught him independence, and freed him from all control except his own.” Victor Segalen (in Hommage à Gauguin, l’insurgé des Marquises, 2003).

Le Jardin de Pissarro, quai du Pothuis à Pontoise, which has remained within the same family for almost a century, is a painting that reflects a critical turning point in Paul Gauguin’s life. It was painted in 1881 when Paul Gauguin decided to abandon his career as a stockbroker and devote himself exclusively to painting, which he did, once and for all, in 1882.

In 1874, Paul Gauguin met Camille Pissarro through Gustave Arosa, a great art lover who introduced him to the Impressionists’ circle. In the beginning, Paul Gauguin was primarily a collector of Impressionist work, but he also quickly learned the new art of painting from them. From 1879 onwards, the relationship between Camille Pissarro and Paul Gauguin grew stronger; Paul Gauguin loaned three of his paintings by Camille Pissarro for that year’s Impressionist exhibition. This was the same exhibition where Paul Gauguin was invited to exhibit his first works alongside those of the Impressionist painters. He went on to do the same in 1880, 1881, 1882 and 1886.

During this period, Camille Pissarro played a vital role in Paul Gauguin’s artistic training, giving him advice and encouragement. As pointed out by Christophe Duvivier, Director of the Musées de Pontoise: “With Pissarro, Gauguin learnt to see a landscape and synthesize it”. Gauguin frequently visited the artist in Pontoise and addressed letters to him as “my dear teacher”. The special bond between the two men is especially felt in a joint work made in 1880, now kept at the Musée d’Orsay, which represents a portrait of Paul Gauguin by Camille Pissarro combined with a portrait of Pissarro by Gauguin on the same sheet.

In the summer of 1881, Camille Pissarro moved to a house on Quai du Pothuis, where he would stay until November 1882. Paul Gauguin visited him there several times, and it was during one of those trips that this work was painted. This artwork is a particularly moving expression of the close relationship between the two painters. One can suppose that the two men were in the habit of painting side by side, since a work by Camille Pissarro, painted in 1881, depicts exactly the same view. It is interesting to compare these two clearly contemporaneous paintings: the version painted by Camille Pissarro is still perfectly in keeping with the Impressionist pictorial vocabulary, while Paul Gauguin’s version, though it borrows from Impressionist techniques, cleary contains the seeds of the artists own original style, especially in its choice of colours and the original framing of the composition. The bird’s-eye view of the path leading to Camille Pissarro’s house, the parasol cut off at the bottom of the composition and the branches emerging from the top left of the painting all represent a major innovation, inspired by the early photographic processes, which firmly place Paul Gauguin’s seemingly traditional composition within the evolving art of the early 20th century.

More than just a straightforward depiction of his friend’s house, the painting is also a true homage to his teacher, whose presence is suggested here. It is more than likely that the figure beneath the parasol is Camille Pissarro himself, who often painted in plein-air underneath a parasol attached to his easel.

An extraordinary expression of a deep friendship between two of the greatest painters in the history of art, this painting is also unique in that there are two superb self-portraits by Paul Gauguin on the back of the canvas. Described in the artist’s catalogue raisonné as his “first known attempt at self-portraiture”, these two faces have not been dated with any accuracy. It can only be said that they were executed shortly after the composition on the front of the canvas, having been painted after the canvas was fixed to its stretcher. Although they were painted on a rough weave background, these self-portraits are of remarkable quality. Whether in the very spontaneous technique or in the sharpness of the model’s piercing gaze, they already show signs of some of the artist’s later more famous self-portraits.

Very rarely presented to the public, this painting was purchased in the 1920s by the collector Adolphe Breynat from his friend Charles Bourgeat, a Parisian painter and engraver who was also the owner of an art gallery. It has remained within his family until now.

We wish to thank Christophe Duvivier, Director of the Musées de Pontoise, for his contribution to our catalogue note. (Sotheby’s)

See also:

Pissarro, Camille (1830-1903) | Pontoise (France)