id: 128392 accession number: 1951.356 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.356 updated: 2023-05-19 11:03:06.815000 Edge of the Woods Near L'Hermitage, Pontoise, 1879. Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903). Oil on fabric; framed: 166 x 204 x 16.5 cm (65 3/8 x 80 5/16 x 6 1/2 in.); unframed: 125 x 163 cm (49 3/16 x 64 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund 1951.356 title: Edge of the Woods Near L'Hermitage, Pontoise title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1879 creation date earliest: 1879 creation date latest: 1879 current location: 222 Impressionism & Post-Impressionism creditline: Gift of the Hanna Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903) - artist Camille Pissarro's parents ran a general merchandise business on St. Thomas. After attending boarding school in Paris, Pissarro returned to the West Indies to work for his father from 1847 until 1852. As an artist he was largely self-taught, receiving some instruction from Fritz Melbye (1826-1896), a Danish artist with whom he traveled to Venezuela in 1852. When Pissarro returned to Paris in 1855, he shared a studio with Anton Melbye (1818-1875), Fritz's brother, and with David Jacobsen (1821-1871). He took classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1856 and three years later attended the Académie Suisse, where he befriended artists such as Cézanne (q.v.), Monet (q.v.), and Guillaumin (q.v.). Corot (q.v.) encouraged him to paint landscapes around Paris, and he was listed as Corot's pupil in the catalogues of the Salons of 1864 and 1865. He had met Julie Vellay in 1860, with whom he would have eight children; they married in 1871. Pissarro exhibited regularly at the Salons from 1859 to 1870, although his work received little attention and he sold hardly anything. In 1866 he settled in Pontoise, often returning to Paris where he kept a studio. He frequented Émile Zola's "Thursdays" (weekly literary gatherings) and associated with Manet's (q.v.) artistic circle that gathered in the Café Guerbois. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) Pissarro fled with his family, first to Montfoucault and then to London, where he worked with Monet and Daubigny (q.v.) and was introduced to the dealer Durand-Ruel. In 1872 he returned to Pontoise, where he painted with Cézanne. Around 1869 Pissarro began painting in a purely impressionist style, and in 1874 he helped organize the first impressionist exhibition. He moved to Éragny-sur-Epte in 1884, where he came into contact with Seurat (q.v.) and Paul Signac (1863-1935) and subsequently began to work in a pointillist style. He eventually found this technique too limiting, and returned to an impressionist mode, often working in series. By the end of his career his landscapes and depictions of city life sold well, and in 1892 he was given a retrospective exhibition at Durand-Ruel. By now, the artist had developed strongly anarchist convictions. Pissarro not only painted and made drawings, he also experimented with etching and lithography. --- measurements: Framed: 166 x 204 x 16.5 cm (65 3/8 x 80 5/16 x 6 1/2 in.); Unframed: 125 x 163 cm (49 3/16 x 64 3/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: C. Pissarro 79 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: De David a Toulouse-Lautrec : chefs-d’oeuvres des collections americaines opening date: 1955-04-20T05:00:00 De David a Toulouse-Lautrec : chefs-d’oeuvres des collections americaines. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (organizer) (April 20-July 5, 1955). title: In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. opening date: 1958-03-04T05:00:00 In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958). title: Camille Pissarro: The Unexplored Impressionist opening date: 1980-10-30T05:00:00 Camille Pissarro: The Unexplored Impressionist. Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (October 30, 1980-January 11, 1981); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (January 30-April 27, 1981); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (May 19-August 9, 1981). title: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886 opening date: 1986-01-16T05:00:00 The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (January 16-April 6, 1986); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (April 19-July 6, 1986). title: Camille Pissarro and Impressionism opening date: 1999-12-11T00:00:00 Camille Pissarro and Impressionism. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, D-70184 Stuttgart, Germany (organizer) (December 11, 1999-May 1, 2000). title: Cézanne and Pissarro: Making Modernism opening date: 2005-06-24T00:00:00 Cézanne and Pissarro: Making Modernism. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (June 24-September 12, 2005); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (October 20, 2005-January 16, 2006); Musée d'Orsay, 75343 Paris, France (February 27-May 28, 2006). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009). title: Pissarro. A Meeting on St. Thomas opening date: 2017-03-09T00:00:00 Pissarro. A Meeting on St. Thomas. Ordrupgaard, Charlottenlund, Copenhagen, Denmark (organizer) (March 9-July 2, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * La 4e exposition de peinture. 28 Avenue de l'Opéra, Paris, France (1879). * Tableaux par Camille Pissarro. Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, France (1928). * Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France (1930). * Les premières époques de Camille Pissarro, de 1858 à 1884. Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Paris, France (1936), --- PROVENANCE Family of the artist, sold to Bernheim-Jeune date: 1903-1913 footnotes: citations: (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, sold to L’Art Moderne) date: 1913-1935 footnotes: *
Bernheim-Jeune purchased the painting (stock number 20114) from Julie Pissarro, the artist's widow, on December 17, 1913.  
citations: (L'Art Moderne, Lucerne) date: 1935 footnotes: *
L’Art Moderne was a branch of Bernheim-Jeune located in Lucerne, Switzerland; a number of works from its stock were auctioned at Hôtel Drouot on June 20, 1935. 
citations: (L'Art Moderne sale, Hôtel Drouot, June 20, 1935 (no. 59), sold to André Schoeller) date: 1935 footnotes: citations: (André Schoeller [1898-1991], Paris) date: 1935- footnotes: citations: (Charles Comiot, Paris date: ? footnotes: *
Comiot was a businessman and art collector who had amassed a significant collection of Impresisonist works by the late 1920s.  The Wildenstein Pissarro catalogue raisonné includes Comiot as a previous owner of the painting, but does not provide dates or documentation for his ownership.  A sale of works from Comiot’s collection at Hôtel Drouot on June 11, 1958 does not include the CMA painting.  A Renoir pastel sold at Sotheby’s, New York, on May 10, 2001 also has Comiot followed by de Hauke in its provenance, so the two may have had an ongoing business relationship. 
citations: (César de Hauke and Hector Brame, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: Until 1951 footnotes: *
The Pissarro does not appear in Galerie Brame & Lorenceau’s stock books, so it is likely that Hector Brame, a close business associate of de Hauke, brokered the sale of the painting to CMA.
citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1951- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: A goat seen from the back standing next to the figure in blue laying in the grass invites the viewer to step inside this serene and beautiful setting. digital description: wall description: Born to a French-Jewish family on St. Thomas island in the Caribbean, Pissarro painted this monumental landscape when he was desperately poor and struggling to sell his paintings. It depicts a man slumbering in the sun-dappled backwoods of the Hermitage, a rural village near Pontoise, where the artist had been living since 1872. Restricting his palette to pure hues, Pissarro applied brushstrokes in systematic diagonal patterns, producing an effect that he likened to knitting. This canvas was included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Pissarro, Joachim, Joachim Pissarro, and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: critical catalogue of paintings. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 2005. page number: url: César de Hauke, letter to Henry S. Francis, Nov. 17, 1951, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, July 28, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Pissarro, Joachim, Joachim Pissarro, and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: critical catalogue of paintings. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 2005. page number: url: César de Hauke, letter to Henry S. Francis, Nov. 17, 1951, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, July 28, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, Oct. 13, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Bonnard, Boudin, Céria, Cézanne, Chagall, Corot, Coubine, Courbet, Cross, Degas, Derain, R. Dufy, Dufresne, Eberl, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Guillaumin, Laglenne, Marquet, Modigliani, Monet, Monticelli, Pascin, Picasso, Pissarro, Quizet, Renoir, Rouault, Signac, Souverbie, Utrillo, Vallotton, Vlaminck. 1935. page number: url: Pissarro, Joachim, Joachim Pissarro, and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: critical catalogue of paintings. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 2005. page number: url: Guy-Patrice Dauberville, letter to Victoria Sears Goldman, July 28, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Bonnard, Boudin, Céria, Cézanne... June 20, 1935. page number: url: Hôtel Drouot. Tableaux modernes, aquarelles, pastels, dessins par Bonnard, Boudin, Céria, Cézanne... June 20, 1935. page number: url: Pissarro, Joachim, Joachim Pissarro, and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: critical catalogue of paintings. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications, 200 page number: url: Pissarro, Ludovico Rodo, and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro; son art--son œuvre. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1939. page number: url: Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 30, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Sylvie Brame, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, Jan. 29, 2015, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: D'Hervilly, Ernest. "Exposition des Impressionistes." Le Rappel (April 11, 1879): 2. page number: Mentioned: p. 2 url: Pissarro, Ludovico Rodo, and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro; Son Art--Son Oeuvre. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1939. page number: Mentioned: vol. 1, no. 489; reproduced: vol. 2, no. 489, pl. 99 url: Francis, Henry S. "Le Fond de l'Hermitage by Camille Pissarro." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 4 (April 1952): 64-66. page number: Reproduced: p. 62 url: Art et Style 34 (1955): 22. page number: Reproduced: p. 22 url: Musée de l'Orangerie. De David à Toulouse-Lautrec; chefs-d'œuvres des collections américaines. Paris: [Presses artistiques], 1955. page number: Referenced: cat. no. 45, Reproduced: pl. 44 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Owned Paintings Will Go to France,” April 20, 1955, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr4556 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 505 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n93 Milliken,William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. page number: Reproduced: p. 54 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland: The Museum, 1958. page number: Reproduced: no. 69 url: Henning, E. B. “Cleveland Museum of Art: From Turner to Guston.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 78 (December 1963): 481–488. page number: Reproduced: p. 484 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 174 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n198 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 174 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n198 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 215 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n235 Brettell, Richard R. and Christopher Lloyd. A Catalogue of the Drawings by Camille Pissarro in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. page number: Mentioned: p. 140-141, nos. 132, 133 url: Pissarro: Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903 : Hayward Gallery, London, 30 October 1980-11 January 1981, Grand Palais, Paris, 30 January-27 April 1981, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 19 May-9 August 1981. London, United Kingdom: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1980. page number: Reproduced: p. 43 url: Lucie-Smith, Edward. "Impressions of Pissarro." Illustrated London News 268 (December 1980): 75. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 75 url: Lloyd, Christopher. Camille Pissarro. New York: Rizzoli, 1981. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 80-81 url: Bernard, Bruce. The Impressionist Revolution. London: Orbis, 1986. page number: Reproduced: p. 232; mentioned: p. 263 url: Brettell, Richard R. Pissarro and Pontoise: The Painter in a Landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 192-193, pl. 166 url: Zimmermann, Michael F. Seurat and the Art Theory of His Time. Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 170 url: Kapos, Martha. The Impressionists, a Retrospective. [Southport, Conn.]: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1991. page number: Reproduced: pl. 57 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 152-153 url: Pissarro, Joachim. Camille Pissarro. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993. page number: Mentioned: p. 121; reproduced: p. 132, fig. 138 url: Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: Reproduced: p. 183 url: Benedetti, Maria Teresa. L'Impressionismo: Dentro l'Immagine. Milano: A. Mondadori, 1993. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 178-181 url: Reid, Martin. Pissarro. London, England: Studio Editions, 1993. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 96-97 url: Ewers-Schultz, Martina. Die Französischen Grundlagen des "Rheinischen Expressionismus" 1905 bis 1914: Stellenwert und Bedeutung der französischen Kunst in Deutschland und ihre Rezeption in den Werken der Bonner Ausstellungsgemeinschaft von 1913. Münster: Lit, 1996. page number: Reproduced: p. 369, pl. 5 url: Berson, Ruth. The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874-1886: Documentation. [San Francisco, CA]: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1996. page number: Mentioned: Vol. 1, p. 206-207, 224; Vol. 2, p. 117; Reproduced: Vol. 2, p. 137 url: Benedetti, Maria Teresa. "Pissarro: Il Periodo Impressionista." Art e Dossier 132 (March 1998): 16-33 page number: Reproduced: p. 28; mentioned: p, 30 url: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mone, Runowāru to inshōha no fūkei: kaikan kinen dai ikkai kikakuten = Monet, Renoir, and the Impressionist Landscape. [Japan]: Nagoya Bosuton Bijutsukan, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 146, fig. 26 url: D Argencourt, Louise, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 494-496, no. 172 url: Shackelford, George T. M. Monet, Renoir, and the Impressionist Landscape. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2000. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 146, fig. 37 url: Eisenman, Stephen. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson, 2002. page number: Mentioned: p. 297; reproduced: p. 292, fig. 13.11 url: Christie. Impressionist and Modern Art (Evening Sale). London: Christie's, 2002. page number: Reproduced: p. 29, fig.4 url: Mancoff, Debra N. Impressionism: Reflections of Beauty. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, Ltd, 2003. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 72 url: Pissarro, Joachim. Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne & Pissarro, 1865-1885. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2005. page number: Reproduced: p. 212, no. 105 url: Legrand, Francois. "Conversation en Peinture." Connaissance des Arts Hors-Serie 275 (2006): 24-35. page number: Reproduced: p. 29 url: Eisenman, Stephen. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 344, fig. 15.13 url: Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Pissarro: et møde på Skt. Thomas. København: Ordrupgaard, 2017. page number: Reproduced: p. 168, fig. 161 url: Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. page number: Reproduced: p. 39 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAPaintings1952 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.356/1951.356_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.356/1951.356_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1951.356/1951.356_full.tif