Pissarro lived in Pontoise, nestled in the Oise River valley just northwest of Paris, from 1866 to 1869, and he returned there in 1872. Over the next decade, Pissarro developed his approach to landscape painting, adapting the looser touch, broken brush strokes, and lighter palette of his younger Impressionist colleagues. He also enjoyed contact with Cézanne, who lived in nearby Auvers. With characteristic interest in the pulse of daily life, Pissarro routinely painted inhabited, as opposed to pure, landscapes, frequently depicting villagers walking on paths through the French countryside.

Formerly known as "A Cowherd on the Route du Chou, Pontoise," this view actually shows the rue de Pontoise in the adjacent hamlet of Valhermeil in Auvers. Between 1873 and 1882, Pissarro painted some twenty works in the area, including a half dozen in which the red-roofed house adds a contrasting color note to the hillside's lush greenery.

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): C. Pissarro. 1874

Jean-Baptiste Faure, Paris (until d. 1914); his son, Louis Maurice Faure, Paris (from 1914); his wife, Mme Maurice Faure, Paris (until 1919; sold on February 1 to Petit and Durand-Ruel); [Georges Petit, Paris, and Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, from 1919]; [Paul Rosenberg, Paris and New York, by 1925–28; sold half-share to Wildenstein]; [Paul Rosenberg, Paris and New York, and Wildenstein, New York, 1928–39; sold by Wildenstein to Salomon]; Mrs. Arthur K. Salomon, New York (from 1939); Mrs. Walter (Edna H.) Sachs, New York (by 1945–56; life interest, 1956–d. 1975)

Paris. Paul Rosenberg. "Les Grandes influences au dix-neuvième siècle (d'Ingres à Cézanne)," January 15–February 7, 1925, no. 12 (as "Les collines d'Eragny, près Pontoise," lent by Faure).

Paris. Musée des Arts Décoratifs. "Cinquante ans de peinture française, 1875–1925," May 28–July 12, 1925, no. 57 (as "La gardeuse de vaches," lent by Paul Rosenberg).

London. French Gallery. "Great Masters of the French XIXth Century (Ingres to Picasso)," February 1926, no. 35 (as "Vaches au pâturage," lent by Paul Rosenberg, Paris; possibly this work).

New York. Wildenstein. "Camille Pissarro: His Place in Art," October 24–November 24, 1945, no. 12 (as "Gardeuse de Vache sur la Route du Chou, Pontoise," lent by Mrs. Walter Sachs).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Loan Exhibition," June 22–September 30, 1956, no catalogue (as "Côte du Jallais," lent by Mrs. Walter Sachs).

New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc.. "C. Pissarro," March 25–May 1, 1965, no. 27 (as "Gardeuse de vache sur la route du Chou, Pontoise," lent by Mrs. Edna H. Sachs).

Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh. "Franse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten," March 15–May 31, 1987, no. 15 (as "Route de Chou, Pontoise").

Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Camille Pissarro," November 19, 2005–February 19, 2006, no. 22 (as "A Cowherd on the route du Chou, Pontoise").

Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Camille Pissarro," March 4–May 28, 2006, no. 22 (as "A Cowherd on the route du Chou, Pontoise").

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 49.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Notice sur la collection J.-B. Faure suivie du catalogue des tableaux formant cette collection. Paris, 1902, p. 42, no. 85.

Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, son art—son œuvre. reprint ed. 1989. Paris, 1939, vol. 1, pp. 40, 116, no. 260; vol. 2, pl. 52, no. 260.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX–XX Centuries." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 3, New York, 1967, pp. 16–17, ill., compare it to "Jallais Hill, Pontoise" ( MMA 51.30.2).

Anthea Callen. "Jean-Baptiste Faure, 1830–1914: A Study of a Patron and Collector of the Impressionists and their Contemporaries." Master's thesis, University of Leicester, 1971, p. 393, no. 521, gives early provenance information and erroneously gives its current owner as Mrs. Arthur K. Salomon.

Anne Schirrmeister. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1982, p. 11, colorpl. 3.

Christopher Lloyd in Retrospective Camille Pissarro. Exh. cat., Isetan Museum of Art. [Tokyo], 1984, pp. 131, 133, under nos. 23, 33.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 86–87, ill. (color), notes that "although the painting has the appearance of a spontaneously conceived plein-air work, examination reveals a carefully constructed composition for which there were probably several preliminary drawings and studies"; remarks that the landscape is seen as a place in which peasants live and work.

Joachim Pissarro. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1993, p. 111, fig. 104 (color).

"Documentation: Volume I, Reviews and Volume II, Exhibited Works." The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886. San Francisco, 1996, vol. 2, p. 43, no. II-202, ill. p. 62, suggests it was no. 202 in the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876 [see Ref. Snollaerts 2005].

Bent Lantow. "Pissarro contre la A104." Vivre en Val-d'Oise 50 (June–August 1998), p. 25, ill., states that it depicts the same site as "Le Chou près de Pontoise" of 1878 (PV 446) and "Paysage près de Pontoise, la route d'Auvers," of about 1879 (private collection; PV 504); agrees with Ref. Lloyd 1984 that this work and "Paysage près de Pontoise, la route d'Auvers" depict the same house, now destroyed; maps the locations of these and related paintings along the roads in Pontoise.

Terence Maloon in Camille Pissarro. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sydney, 2005, pp. 20, 25, 99, 249, no. 22, colorpl. 22, ill. on front and back covers (color details), observes that green was not used extensively in landscape painting before the Impressionists and that it "must have seemed less pleasantly tranquil and more confronting to contemporary viewers because of the unsparing use of green—green being the colour of non-ideality, the colour of realism".

Terence Maloon and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts in Camille Pissarro. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales. Sydney, 2005, p. 235, state that it was shown at the 2nd Impressionist exhibition of 1876.

Sebastian Smee. "The Impressionist's Impressionist." Weekend Australian (November 26–27, 2005), p. R18.

Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts in Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings. Milan, 2005, vol. 1, pp. 373–74, 384, 390, 396, 411; vol. 2, pp. 271, 338, 367, 408, 430, 461, no. 354, ill. (color); vol. 3, pp. 953, 956, revises the identification of the site found in Ref. Pissarro and Venturi 1939, stating that it is a view of the côte du Valhermeil at Auvers-sur-Oise from the Pontoise road; lists other paintings of the same site.

Susan Alyson Stein in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 87, 291, no. 81, ill. (color and black and white).

Susan Alyson Stein in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 73, 245–46, no. 49, ill. (color and black and white).

Richard Kendall. "'Dans un cafe', 'Zigzags' and Five Recovered Impressionist Drawings." Burlington Magazine 151 (May 2009), p. 308 n. 22.