Paul-Emile Pissarro
Framed: 67 x 50.75 x 2.75 cm.; 26¼ x 20 x 1¼ in.
He grew up in the artistic surroundings of the family household in Paris. Encouraged by his father, he began to draw at an early age. At fifteen Paul-Émile went to the Academy in Gisors, but left again after a few months to accompany his father on a painting tour of Le Havre, Dieppe and Rouen. On his return to Paris he went to a private art academy, unlike his siblings, who were mainly taught by their father.
On his father’s death in 1903, Paul-Émile returned to his mother in Éragny. The painter Claude Monet, who lived in the nearby Giverny, had been one of Camille’s closest friends and was Paul-Émile's godfather. After Camille’s death, he became a teacher and close friend to Paul-Émile. Paul Emile Pissarro frequently visited Giverny, where Monet taught him painting and gardening, encouraging him to follow in his father’s footsteps: “Work! Study! Do as your father did”.
In 1924 he bought a house in Lyons-la-Forêt, a small village near Éragny, whose garden (designed by Monet) and surroundings offered him subjects for paintings, in particular the pastures, meadows and hills through which the river Epte peacefully flows.
In 1930, on the recommendation of Raoul Dufy, he travelled for the first time in the Suisse Normande. Where the river Orne, runs through the valley between Clécy and Le Vey. The blue hills, green meadows and peaceful waters of the river provided Pissarro with a new environment for his artistic work. He set up a studio in a houseboat.In 1935 Pissarro separated from his wife Berthe. In 1937, together with his second wife Yvonne Beaupel, he bought the house in Clécy in which he lived for the rest of his life.
Provenance
Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, LondonAcquired from the above by the present owner in 2017
