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Dimensions: measurements 23 1/2 by 28 3/4 in. alternate measurements 59.5 by 73 cm
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Provenance:
Maurice Leclanché, Paris (sold: vente Leclanché, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 6, 1924, lot 76)Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired at the above sale)Dr. Claude Lopez, Paris (acquired from the above in 1950)Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., LondonPrivate Collection, United States (acquired from the above in April 1971 and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 11, 1999, lot 105)Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
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Exhibited:
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Tableaux par Camille Pissarro , 1928, no. 66
Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paysages de l'Ile de France , 1937
Atlanta, The High Museum of Art, Georgia Collects , 1989, no. 60
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Notes:
Le Grand Noyer au Printemps, Ã?ragny depicts a walnut tree flanked by a cluster of apple trees in a gently sloping field. Pissarro settled in the village of Ã?ragny after leaving Pontoise in 1882 and was to remain there for the rest of his life, creating his largest and most significant body of work within the landscape genre. This work was painted at the height of PissarroÂ?s Post-Impressionist style and characterizes the luminous and flickering qualities of his handling of paint from this period.
Joachim Pissarro describes PissarroÂ?s production in Ã?ragny, Â?Unlike Pontoise, whose tensions were those of a suburban town, semi-rural and semi-urban, in Ã?ragny no signs of industry could be observed for miles. Varied expanses of pasture and cultivated land complete the visual field. However, Ã?ragnyÂ?s earthly space is not banal. For twenty years Pissarro concentrated on this very confined area, on the visual material offered by the stretch of meadows lying in front of him, informed by poplars, gates, the river, and produced over two-hundred paintings of these motifs. His representation of these fields and gardens constitute the most spectacularly intense pictorial effort to Â?coverÂ? a particular given space in his careerÂ? (Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, New York, 1993, p. 225).
Pissarro returned to the present motif at least once again, in 1895, as the majestic walnut tree dwarfing the smaller fruit trees beneath it seems to have held a particular power for him. In the present work, he situates the two figures of a mother with her young daughter at the base of the walnut tree and sets up a symbolic progression in size from the treeÂ?s overarching presence to the rich foliage of the apple trees, leading to the two figures that appear frail in the midst of natureÂ?s might. Pissarro conjures up an abiding testament to the beauty of the region and a salutary lesson in the insignificance of humankind in the face of the vastness and endurance of nature.
