The Garden, Epping. Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944). 1893-95. Oil on canvas. H 26.5 x W 38 cm. Accession number 2003.447; purchased from Stern Pissarro Gallery, 2003. Collection: Epping Forest District Museum, Waltham Abbey. Kindly made available via Art UK on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND)
Pissarro first settled in England in 1890. After marrying Esther Bensusan, daughter of a City merchant, on 11 August 1892, he rented a house in Epping, and from here, he began painting his surrounding and, together with his wife, establishing the Eragny Press for producing beautifully crafted and illustrated books.
As for his paintings, David Fraser Jenkins tells us that he liked to paint what lay directly in front of him, and was particularly fond of the garden here, writing to his mother about the "'gentil petit bout de jardin à l’anglais dont je suis tout à fait amoureux' (sweet patch of English garden that I love dearly)." In this work, he is still influenced by neo-impressionist techniques, but already shows more freedom in the application and blending of colours: "Lucien’s work is fascinating for its combination of French and English artistic traditions" ("Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944)"), The bright and sometimes surprising mix of colours — the blue on the haystack, for example) — transforms the ordinary scene into something brilliant and immediately appealing. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Baron, Wendy. "Pissarro, Lucien Camille (1863–1944), artist and printer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 11 August 2020.
Jenkins, David Fraser. Catalogue Entry for April, Epping (part of "The Camden Town Group in Context" project). Tate. Web. 11 August 2020.
"Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944)." Stern Pissarro Gallery. Web. 11 August 2020.
Created 8 August 2020