Paul Gauguin Le Jardin de Pissarro, Quai du Pothuis à Pontoise, 1881 (recto)
Deux esquisses d’autoportrait (verso)
An early landscape by Paul Gauguin, which has been in the same collection for nearly a century, will come up at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale in Paris on March 29. Le Jardin de Pissarro, Quai du Pothuis à Pontoise, 1881, has rarely been exhibited: in 1964 in Pont-Aven and, more recently, at a hugely popular exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2016.
The work is rare in more than one respect: Gauguin’s paintings from this period hardly ever appear on the market, and the two self-portraits by the artist on the back of the canvas make it truly unique. According to the catalogue raisonné on Gauguin, these are the first known self-portraits by the artist. It appears certain that they were executed after the landscape. While they are painted on a blank background, both are of an exceptional quality, presaging some of Gauguin’s most famous self-portraits, made a few years later.
Between 1879 and 1881, Gauguin frequently visited Pissarro, whom he called his “dear teacher” in a number of letters. He would often stay in Pontoise, where Pissarro lived. The latter launched Gauguin’s career as a painter and taught him all the technique he required. These were formative years for Gauguin’s art. As Christophe Duvivier, Director of the Pontoise museums, puts it: “With Pissarro, Gauguin learnt to see landscape and summarise it.”
The friendship between the two men is reflected in a joint work made in 1880 and kept at the Musée d’Orsay: a portrait of Gauguin by Pissarro combined with a portrait of Pissarro by Gauguin. The house featured in this painting is where Pissarro lived in Pontoise between summer 1881 and November 1882. The figure underneath the umbrella is likely to be Pisarro, who often painted thus. The work is estimated at 600,000-900,000.