Unlike Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, and other artists in his circle, Pissarro painted few still lifes, most late in his career. This work of 1872 is, therefore, exceptional for its subject, as well as for its clearly expressed forms and subtle manipulation of light. There is only one other comparable painting by the artist, Apples and Pears in a Round Basket of the same year (private collection), which is identical in size and setting to the present canvas, featuring the same floral-patterned wallpaper in the background.
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Title:Still Life with Apples and Pitcher
Artist:Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)
Date:1872
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:18 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (46.4 x 56.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Bernhard Gift, by exchange, 1983
Object Number:1983.166
The Painting: Pissarro was not greatly interested in still life. Even so, a still life dated 1867 (Toledo Museum of Art, 1949.6), relatively early in his career as a painter in France, was followed several years later by two pictures centered on fruit, of which this is one. The two must be contemporaneous as they are very close in size and have the same background; however, as they were soon separated (see below), it is not clear whether they were intended by the artist as a pair. The other, dated 1872, is Apples and Pears in a Round Basket (Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, on loan to the Princeton University Art Museum, L.1988.62.15). At the beginning of the year Pissarro was in Louveciennes, but in April he moved to Pontoise, where he must have painted the apples and pears that would have been available in late summer or autumn.[1] Friends who came to paint with him then included Armand Guillaumin, Ludovic Piette (1826–1878), Edouard Béliard (1832–1912), the Puerto Rico-born Francisco Oller (1833–1917), and Paul Cézanne.[2] The wallpaper in both pictures is vertically striped and figured with individual red blossoms and their bright green leaves and stems. A similar paper would provide the background for Pissarro’s self-portrait of 1873 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 2837).
Here the artist shows, at a slight angle, the corner of a table covered with a flat white cloth. Upon it rest a knife, an antique waterpot of Rouen faience, a deep plate with an irregular edge and a single handle, and a stemmed glass containing red wine. The bluish-white pot is decorated in various colors around the neck and waist, and a small posy of flowers under the spout is depicted as if threaded together and tied around the neck. The plate must contain five apples, of which four are visible. These have been identified as belonging to a common, ancient strain called châtaigniers, or cider apples, which are bright red with yellow markings. The thick red and yellow and the fewer green strokes echo the contours of the fruit. The artist carefully observed the shapes of the shadows cast by the knife and bowl. It is perhaps notable that in the summer of 1872 Pissarro’s wife, Julie Vellay, tended a garden that yielded produce to help keep expenses down; the painter Piette sent them two geese, butter, chestnuts, and a dozen pears.[3]
Early Ownership: The dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, whom Pissarro had met in London during the Franco-Prussian War, bought both still lifes on November 26, 1872. He paid two hundred francs for the one belonging to The Met, which he sold six months later for five hundred francs to the department store merchant and collector Ernest Hoschedé (1837–1891). When, in turn, Hoschedé was obliged by financial exigencies to offer it at auction in January 1874, an agent for Durand-Ruel bought it back for two hundred seventy francs. These transactions are an indication of the financial volatility of both the era and the late nineteenth-century Impressionist art market; they also underline a traditional dealer practice, which is to support the value of paintings by artists they represent. Both still lifes were later owned by New Yorker Erwin Davis (1831–1901), an early American collector of progressive French painting.
Katharine Baetjer 2022
[1] Pissarro and Durand-Ruel Snollarts 2005, vol. 1, p. 135. [2] Pissarro and Durand-Ruel Snollarts 2005, vol. 1, p. 136. [3] Pissarro and Durand-Ruel Snollarts 2005, vol. 1, p. 137.
Inscription: Signed (lower left): C. Pissarro
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1872–73; bought from the artist on November 26, 1872 for Fr 200, stock no. 2174, as "Nature morte (pommes de chataîgners) [sic]"; sold on April 28, 1873, for Fr 500 to Hoschedé]; Ernest Hoschedé, Paris (1873–74; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 13, 1874, no. 59, as "Nature morte," for Fr 270 to Hagerman for Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1874–88; ?stock no. 3523, 3524 or 3526; sold on May 2, 1888 to Davis]; Erwin Davis, New York (1888–99; on deposit by Howard B. Davis on March 2, 1898, at Durand-Ruel, New York, stock no. 5677; sold January 7, 1899 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, New York, 1899–1971; stock no. 2082 as "Still-life, pommes, cruche, verre" or "Pommes de chataîgners et faîence sur une table"; sold in August 1971 to Sam Salz]; [Sam Salz, New York, in 1971]; [?Acquavella, New York; possibly sold to Mellon]; Mrs. Constance Mellon, New York (about 1971–83); [Acquavella, New York, 1983; sold to The Met]
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Paintings Representing Still Life and Flowers," December 20, 1913–January 8, 1914, no. 10 [see Snollaerts 2005].
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Exhibition of Still Life and Flower Pieces," February 7–24, 1923, no. 19 (as "Pommes, cruche, verre").
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Exhibition of Still Life and Flowers," March 19–April 9, 1927, no. 18 (as "Nature morte").
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Still Life and Flowers," January 13–February 1, 1936, no. 10 (as "Nature morte").
New York. Durand-Ruel. "The Art of Camille Pissarro in Retrospect," March 24–April 15, 1941, no. 25 (as "Nature mort, pommes de chataignes et faience sur une table [sic]").
Santa Barbara Museum of Art. 1947, no catalogue? [see Oakley letter 1983].
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Paintings of Still Life from the 18th and 19th Centuries," April 28–May 24, 1947, no catalogue (lent by Durand-Ruel) [see Peebles letter 1983].
New York. Arnold Seligmann-Helft Galleries. "French Still Life from Chardin to Cézanne," October 29–November 22, 1947, no. 27 (as "Nature morte," lent by Durand-Ruel).
Montclair, N.J. Montclair Art Museum. "History of Still Life and Flower Painting," February 22–March 28, 1948, no. 24 (lent by Durand-Ruel).
Paris. Durand-Ruel. "Exposition Camille Pissarro," June 26–September 14, 1956, no. 18 (as "Nature morte: pommes de châtaigniers et faïence sur une table").
Kunstmuseum Bern. "Camille Pissarro, 1830–1903," January 19–March 10, 1957, no. 25 (lent by a private collection).
New York. Acquavella Galleries. "XIX & XX Century Master Paintings," May 17–June 18, 1983, no. 2 (as "Still Life").
Washington. Phillips Collection. "Impressionist Still Life," September 22, 2001–January 13, 2002, unnumbered cat. (pl. 30).
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Impressionist Still Life," February 17–June 9, 2002, unnumbered cat. (pl. 30).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne & Pissarro 1865–1885," June 26–September 12, 2005, no. 26.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne & Pissarro 1865–1885," October 20, 2005–January 16, 2006, no. 26.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne & Pissarro 1865–1885," February 27–May 28, 2006, no. 26.
Kunstmuseum Basel. "Camille Pissarro: The Studio of Modernism," September 4, 2021–January 23, 2022, no. 35.
A. Tabarant. Pissarro. London, 1925, pp. 27–28, calls it "Chestnuts and Pottery on a Table" and notes that it sold for Fr 270 at an anonymous sale in January 1874 [see Ref. Bodelsen 1968].
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, son art—son œuvre. reprint ed. 1989. Paris, 1939, vol. 1, p. 106, no. 195; vol. 2, pl. 39, no. 195, date it about 1872.
French Still Life from Chardin to Cezanne. Exh. cat., Arnold Seligmann-Helft Galleries. New York, 1947, no. 27, dates it 1880.
Merete Bodelsen. "Early Impressionist Sales 1874–94 in the Light of some Unpublished 'procès verbaux'." Burlington Magazine 110 (June 1968), pp. 332–33, notes that it was sold for Fr 270 to Hagerman in the 1874 Hoschedé sale.
Christopher Lloyd and Anne Distel inPissarro. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery. London, 1980, p. 88, relate it to "Still Life: Pears in a Round Basket" (PV194; Marge Scheuer collection, New York), dated 1872, and comment that the "Self-Portrait" (PV200; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) depicts a similar wallpaper to that found in the two still lifes.
Anne Schirrmeister. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1982, p. 10, colorpl. 6.
Gary Tinterow inThe Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1983–1984. New York, 1984, p. 66, ill. (color), dates it 1872.
Anne Distel. "Some Pissarro Collectors in 1874." Studies on Camille Pissarro. Ed. Christopher Lloyd. 1986, pp. 66, 71 n. 4, p. 72 n. 6, notes that although Hagerman purchased it at the Hoschedé sale, it was bought back by Durand-Ruel.
Joachim Pissarro. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1993, p. 271, fig. 320.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 438, ill.
Alexandra Ames Lawrence in Eliza E. Rathbone and George T. M. Shackelford. Impressionist Still Life. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New York, 2001, pp. 24, 90–91, 215, colorpl. 30.
Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts in Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings. Milan, 2005, vol. 1, pp. 16, 54 n. 39, pp. 370, 372–74, 379, 383, 385, 390–91, 394, 407, 423, 425, 427; vol. 2, pp. 216–17, no. 270, ill. (color); vol. 3, pp. 953, 956, calls it "'Châtaignier' Apples and Glazed Earthenware on a Table" and dates it about 1872; notes that the "Châtaignier" apple is characteristic of the Gâtinais area south of Paris.
Joachim Pissarro. Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne & Pissarro 1865–1885. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 2005, p. 109, ill. p. 110 (color detail) and colorpl. 26.
Audrey Gay-Mazuel inWorking among Flowers: Floral Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century France. Ed. Heather MacDonald and Mitchell Merling. Exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas, 2014, p. 47, describes the tall ceramic vessel as a "mid-to-late eighteenth-century water pot in Rouen faience decorated in high-fired polychrome".
Cora Michael inCézanne and the Modern: Masterpieces of European Art from the Pearlman Collection. Exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford. Princeton, 2014, pp. 95, 97–99 nn. 3, 11, 12, fig. 59 (color), states that Pissarro painted it and "Still Life: Apples and Pears in a Round Basket" (1872, private collection, New York) shortly after settling in Pontoise, most likely in late summer or early fall, when apples and pears are in season; notes that Durand-Ruel purchased the two pictures as a pair on the same day.
Pauline Madinier-Duée inScènes de la vie impressionniste: Manet, Renoir, Monet, Morisot . . . Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen. Paris, 2016, p. 138, as "Pommes châtaigniers et faïence sur une table".
Camille Pissarro: The Studio of Modernism. Ed. Christophe Duvivier and Josef Helfenstein. Exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Basel. Munich, 2021, p. 317, no. 35, ill. p. 197 (color).
Nicole Georgopulos inParis 1874: The Impressionist Moment. Ed. Sylvie Patry et al. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Washington, 2024, p. 245, fig. 183 (color).
Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, ed. Discovering the Impressionists: Memoirs of Paul Durand-Ruel. Rev. ed. Paris, 2024, pp. 114, 264 n. 77.
Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)
1888
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