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Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903
Route de Versailles, Louveciennes, Rain Effect
1870
Pissarro painted this road in the small town of Louveciennes several times during his two-year stay there. The unremarkable location provided a backdrop to explore varied atmospheric conditions, in this case a gray, wet day. With distinct, irregular brushstrokes, he recorded pedestrians, a distant carriage, leafless trees, and shining cobblestones in the weak light of a cloud-filled sky.
Image Caption
Camille Pissarro, Route de Versailles, Louveciennes, Rain Effect, 1870, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.825
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
15 3/4 x 22 1/8 in. (40 x 56.2 cm)
Frame: 24 7/8 x 31 3/16 x 2 1/2 in. (63.2 x 79.2 x 6.4 cm)
Object Number
1955.825
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
Off View
Select Bibliography
Paris: Galerie Georges Petit.. Cent Ans de Peinture Française.. June 1930.. London: Galerie Alex Reid & Lefèvre.. Peinture Française du XIXe et XXe Siècles.. October 1930.. Pissarro, Ludovico Rodo, and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, Son Art, Son Oeuvre. 2 volumes. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1939. Venturi, Lionello. The Art of Camille Pissarro in Retrospect. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Durand-Ruel Galleries, 1941. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five: French Paintings of the 19th Century. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1956. John Rewald.. The History of Impressionism.. New York: Museum of Modern Art.. 1961, 1973.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1963. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Pierre Courthion.. Impressionism.. New York: Abrams.. 1972.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Kermit S. Champa.. Studies in Early Impressionism.. New Haven: Yale University Press.. 1973.. Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London.. Camille Pissarro 1820-1903. Oct. 30, 1980-Jan. 11, 1981; Grand Palais, Paris, Jan. 30-April 27, 1981; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, May 19-Aug. 9, 1981.. 1980.. Musée Promenade de Marly-le-Roi.. De Renoir à Vuillard.. March 22-June 24, 1984.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Manchester (NH): Currier Gallery of Art. The Rise of Landscape Painting in France: Corot to Monet. Jan. 29-April 30, 1991; IBM Gallery, New York, July 30-Sept. 28, 1991; Dallas Museum of Art, Nov. 10, 1991-Jan. 5, 1992; High Museum, Atlanta, Jan. 28-March 29, 1992. (Cat. by Kermit Champa et al.). 1991.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Pissarro, Joachim. Camille Pissarro. New York: Abrams, 1993. South Bank Centre, London.. Landscapes of France: Impressionism and Its Rivals. May 18-Aug. 28, 1995; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Oct. 4, 1995-Jan. 14, 1996. Cat. by John House.. 1995.. Washington (D.C.). The Phillips Collection. Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige. Sept. 19, 1998-Jan. 3, 1999; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Jan. 30-May 2, 1999. Cat. by Charles S. Moffett et al. Pissarro, Joachim and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue pf Paintings. Vol. I-III. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications. 2005. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
[Étienne Bignou, Paris, possibly by 1930, sold to Carstairs, Dec. 1940];¹ [Carroll Carstairs, New York, 1940-41, sold to Clark, 9 Jan. 1941, as "La Route"]; Robert Sterling Clark (1941–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.
1. Sterling Clark, when he was considering the purchase of this painting, referred to it as the “Carstairs Pissarro which Bignou offered him [Carstairs],” indicating that Bignou owned it at the time. See RSC Diary, 18 Dec. 1940. Since Étienne Bignou was one of the organizers of the Paris 1930b exhibition, it is likely that the painting was in his possession by that date. Also note that Ludovic- Rodolphe Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, in their 1939 publication (vol. 1, p. 89), incorrectly stated that the painting was once owned by the Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow. A letter of May 1966 to the Clark from the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries confirms that they never owned or borrowed this work. See Clark curatorial file.