Camille Pissarro (1831-1903) Usine à Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, la crue de l'Oise 1873 oil on canvas 38 x 56 cm (15 x 22 in.) signed and dated ‘C. Pissarro 1873’ (lower left)

Provenance: Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13th April 1892, lot 46 Durand-Ruel, Paris (purchased at the above sale) Bernheim-Jeune & Georges Petit, Paris (acquired from the above on 13th February 1899) Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7th June 1911, lot 34 Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (purchased at the above sale) Tilla Durieux (actress and widow of Paul Cassirer; sale: Berlin, 22nd October 1932, lot 63) Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin Étienne Bignou, Paris (acquired before 1938) Alex Reid & Lefevre, London (acquired after 1941) The 9th Earl of Jersey, Jersey (acquired from the above in August 1951) By descent to the previous owners

This work is offered pursuant to a settlement agreement between the heirs of Tilla Durieux and the previous owners.

Exhibited: London, Alex Reid & Lefevre, Pissarro and Sisley, 1937, no. 6 Glasgow, McClellan Gallery, French Art of the 19th & 20th Centuries, 1937, no. 43 London, Alex Reid & Lefevre, The 19th century French Masters, 1937, no. 29 (titled L'Oise près de Creil) New York, Bignou Gallery, Masterpieces by 19th century French Painters, 1938, no. 11 London, Alex Reid & Lefevre, Milestones in French Paintings, 1939, no. 23 Jersey, La Societé Jersiaise, Centenary Art Exhibition, 1973, no. 6

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London, Hayward Gallery; Paris, Grand Palais & Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Pissarro, 1981, no. 28, illustrated in the catalogue

Literature: Émile Dacier, Le Bulletin de l’art ancien et moderne, 25th March 1899, p. 101 Maurice Méry, Le Moniteur des arts, 31st March 1899, p. 1242 Ludovic Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son art, son œuvre, Paris, 1939, no. 214, illustrated pl. 43 Dr Richard Brettell, Pissarro and Pontoise; the painter in a landscape, Yale University, 1990, illustrated in colour p. 83 Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Milan, 2005, vol. II, no.297, illustrated in colour p. 234

Painted in 1873, Usine à Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, la crue de l'Oise is an extraordinary example of early Impressionism and testament to Camille Pissarro’s desire to capture and embrace a true portrait of contemporary France: the Industrial Revolution and all the enormous changes that came in its wake.

The present work forms part of a group of four paintings of 1873, all depicting the then newly erected and vast factory of Chalon et Cie, situated on the south side of the River Oise, and which Richard Brettell has described as a ‘very important series’ (R. Brettell ‘Camille Pissarro: A revision’, in Pissarro (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London, 1981, p. 21). He remarks that ‘when [this group is] considered in the context of Pissarro’s peasant landscapes and market scenes, they reflect a preoccupation with labour which is opposed to that absorption in a more leisurely world which is characteristic of the other Impressionist landscape painters’. He goes on to comment on another notable feature of the group, that they are ‘unusual in Pissarro’s œuvre because they are virtually unpopulated’ (ibid.). The other three works in this important group are all held in museum collections: The Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield (Fig. 1); The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (Fig. 2); and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Fig. 3).

Like his peer Manet, Pissarro should be considered first and foremost a ‘painter of modern life', a conception first proposed by Baudelaire in his famous 1863 essay of the same name. He was fascinated by the symbols of the new urban scenery, be it in the form of the new Parisian boulevards or the factory chimneys and smoke of the present work. This interest in depicting the changing face of France is at the heart of this work, but subject matter aside, this painting is also a celebration of the nuance of atmosphere, of weather, and of light. In the true Impressionist tradition, this is a snapshot of a very particular transitory moment in time, painted by an artist whose sensitivity to the world around him is unparalleled. The gestural handling of the paint perfectly expresses the spontaneous spirit of Pissarro’s en plein air painting methods. Through his subtle tertiary palette, Pissarro succeeds in making the chimney smoke into something lyrical and poetic, a sort of ode to change or to the intangible. The present work is an exceptional portrait of an urban landscape in a time of unprecedented change and demonstrates the artist’s insatiable curiosity and ability to find beauty in the everyday. Emile Zola once described Pissarro’s paintings as possessing ‘a heroic frankness and simplicity’, words which perfectly articulate the solemn and affecting visual impact of this important painting Usine à Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, la crue de l'Oise.

Fig. 1 Camille Pissarro, Usine à Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, 1873, oil on canvas, 45 x 54 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts)

Fig. 2 Camille Pissarro, Usine au bord de l’Oise, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, 1873, oil on canvas, 46 x 55.7 cm (The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts)

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Fig. 3 Camille Pissarro, Usine au bord de l’Oise, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, 1873, oil on canvas, 38 x 55 cm (The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

30 Cork St. London W1S 3NG | 5-7 Dover St. London W1S 4LD T +44 (0) 20 7287 7750 F +44 (0) 207 287 7751 [email protected] www.alonzakaim.com