While visiting Rouen in spring and fall 1896, Pissarro wrote of his interest in the "motif of the iron bridge on a rainy day, with much traffic, carriages, pedestrians, workers on the quays, boats, smoke, mist in the distance, the whole scene fraught with animation and life." The present canvas is one of several views of the Boieldieu Bridge, or Grand Pont, that Pissarro painted from a room in the Hôtel d'Angleterre. Its title, Matin, Temps Gris, Rouen (Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen), is thought to be the artist’s own.
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Title:Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen
Artist:Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)
Date:1896
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 3/8 x 25 5/8 in. (54.3 x 65.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Grégoire Tarnopol, 1979, and Gift of Alexander Tarnopol, 1980
Object Number:1980.21.1
Painting from Indoors: The practice of painting in series, most often associated with Claude Monet, was, under his influence, adopted by his elder friend Pissarro. Yet Pissarro’s decision to paint in series also relates to difficulties with sight: by the late 1880s, Pissarro had developed an infection which caused his eyes to water copiously, a condition for which there was then no cure. Obliged to avoid wind and dust, he found his subject matter looking out from his own windows in the country. At Eragny, to which he moved in 1884, painting the outside from indoors became an established practice. Years later, in 1893, Pissarro engaged a room at a hotel in Paris with a view of the Saint-Lazare train station; from his upstairs window, he painted cityscapes which attracted the attention of his dealer, Durand-Ruel. There would be other series devoted to Paris subjects in the last decade of his life, but in the meantime, he made several working visits over a period of years to another city on the river Seine, the port of Rouen.
Pissarro in Rouen: From January through March 1896, Pissarro made the first of two stays at the Hôtel de Paris to prepare work for a forthcoming April exhibition at Durand-Ruel. He was back in Rouen from September 8 through November 11, and his dealer bought the present work a month later, on December 11. The artist found accommodation in different locations, in the autumn gaining a different perspective from the more expensive Hôtel d’Angleterre on place de la Bourse. He had visited Rouen for the first time in 1883. On that initial stay, he took a room at the Hôtel du Dauphin et d’Espagne, which offered artists advantageous terms because it belonged to the pastry chef, restaurateur, and Impressionist patron Eugène Murer (1841–1906), whose likeness Renoir painted in 1877 (The Met 2003.20.9). While there, Pissarro focused on a variety of river scenes, some within and others outside the city proper. Among them is The Stone Bridge and Barges (1883, Columbus Museum of Art, 1991.001.053), which anticipates his later series, and an evocative Pointillist canvas, L’Ile Lacroix, Rouen (The Effect of Fog) of 1888 (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1060), which evolved from his 1883 studies. In 1898, he returned to Rouen to paint the market and the nearby cathedral precinct (see The Met 60.5).
The Painting: Pissarro wrote enthusiastically to his eldest son Lucien (1863–1944) about Rouen, especially the city's place de la Bourse and the modern bridge over the Seine, where crowds of pedestrians mingled with laborers, cranes, and the smoke of boats, and where every surface glistened with moisture in fog or rainy weather. The iron bridge, Pont Boieldieu (named for a composer who was a native of Rouen), had been inaugurated in 1888, replacing a suspension bridge connecting the center of the old town with the south bank. Smokestacks in the background bear witness to recent industrial development, notably the tall, very slender brick chimney at near right, which is partly hidden behind a cloud and emits a trail of gray vapor. Steamboats and barges are tied up two deep on the south side, while to the north, at the lower left, a passenger ferry with a smoking stack has arrived or prepares to depart from its mooring. A barge serving as a passenger terminal and offering seating on deck is tied up there. A similar view shows the wrought iron gate leading to the terminal (Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle, 2488). Many people on foot, at least one yellow omnibus, and four or five carts cross the bridge between the city center and the industrial quarter of Saint-Sever.
All the bridge paintings have similar compositions, which employ a strong diagonal; they differ mainly with respect to the time of day and the weather, which usually ranges from cloudy to poor. Pissarro closely observed the atmospheric effects: here, a pale overcast imparts dim, even light to the water as well as to the paving stones in the foreground. He used white, especially in the sky, which is heavily impasted. It has been suggested that the artist, himself, titled the painting Matin, Temps Gris, Rouen, which translates as Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen. Literally, “temps gris” means bad, or gray, weather.
Katharine Baetjer 2022
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): C.Pissarro.96
[Durand-Ruel, New York, 1896–1944; purchased from the artist on December 11, 1896; sold on February 29, 1944 to Tarnopol]; Grégoire Tarnopol, New York (1944–d. 1979); his brother, Alexander Tarnopol (1979–80)
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Paintings by Camille Pissarro — Views of Rouen," March–April 1897, no. 3 [see Snollaerts 2005].
Saint Louis Music Hall. "Saint Louis Exposition 1897, Fourteenth Annual Exhibition," probably September–October 1897, no. 423 (possibly this picture) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Cincinnati Art Museum. "A Comparative Exhibition of Paintings," December 1897, no. 603 (as "The Seine at Rouen on a Gray Day," lent by Durand-Ruel, possibly this picture) [see Snollaerts 2005].
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Paintings by Camille Pissarro," November 28–December 12, 1903, no. 34 [see Snollaerts 2005].
Boston. Brooks Reed Gallery. December 1916–January 1917, no catalogue? [see Snollaerts 2005].
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Paintings by Pissarro," February 3–17, 1917, no. 6 [see Snollaerts 2005].
Dallas. Adolphus Hotel. "First Annual Exhibition: Contemporary International Art," November 18–27, 1919, no. 76 [see Snollaerts 2005].
Dallas. Adolphus Hotel. "Second Annual Exhibition: American and European Art," April 7–21, 1921, no. 206 (as "Rouen," lent by Durand-Ruel, New York).
New York. Durand-Ruel Galleries. "Paintings by Camille Pissarro, 1830–1903," December 1–?, 1923, no. 11 (as "Matin, temps gris, Rouen").
Columbia. University of Missouri. March–April 1924, no catalogue? (lent by Durand-Ruel) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Memphis. Brooks Memorial Art Gallery. "Modern European Paintings," October 3–November 1, 1924, no. 18 (lent by Durand-Ruel, New York) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Poughkeepsie. Vassar College Art Gallery. "Paintings by French Impressionists," January 1926, no. 9 [see Snollaerts 2005].
Toronto. Fine Arts Galleries. November–December 1930, no catalogue? (lent by Durand-Ruel) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Bronxville, N.Y. Sarah Lawrence College. "Pioneers of the French Impressionist School," beginning February 1932, no catalogue? (lent by Durand-Ruel) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Bronx, N.Y. Fieldston School. "Pioneers of the French Impressionist School," February 15–29, 1932, no catalogue? (lent by Durand-Ruel) [see Snollaerts 2005].
Montreal. W. Scott & Sons. "French Paintings: Renoir and His Contemporaries," March 1936, no. 9 (possibly this picture) [see Snollaerts 2005].
San Francisco Museum of Art. "Impressionism: Paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Seurat, Sisley," Summer 1938, no. 20 (as "Gray Morning, Rouen," lent by Durand-Ruel, New York).
New York. Durand-Ruel. "The Art of Camille Pissarro in Retrospect," March 24–April 15, 1941, no. 1 (as "Matin, temps gris, Rouen").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 6–September 4, 1960, no. 90 (as "Morning, Rouen," lent by Grégoire Tarnopol).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings from Private Collections: Summer Loan Exhibition," July 12–September 2, 1963, no. 60 (as "Morning, Rouen," lent by Grégoire Tarnopol).
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "C. Pissarro," March 25–May 1, 1965, no. 62 (lent by Gregoire Tarnopol).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Summer Loan Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from Private Collections," July 8–September 6, 1966, no. 136 (as "Morning, Rouen," lent by Grégoire Tarnopol).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York Collects," July 3–September 2, 1968, no. 165 (as "Morning, Rouen," lent by Grégoire Tarnopol).
Dallas Museum of Art. "The Impressionist and the City: Pissarro's Series Paintings," November 15, 1992–January 31, 1993, no. 5 (as "Morning, Overcast Day, Rouen").
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "The Impressionist and the City: Pissarro's Series Paintings," March 7–June 6, 1993, no. 5.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. "A City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin in Rouen," June 4–September 26, 2010, no. 75 (as "Morning, Overcast Sky, Rouen" or "Pont Boieldieu, Rouen, Morning, Rainy Weather").
Camille Pissarro. Letter to Lucien Pissarro. February 26, 1896 [published and translated in John Rewald, ed., "Camille Pissarro, Letters to His Son Lucien," London, 1980, pp. 282–83], remarks that he has begun a dozen pictures that study the atmospheric changes on bridges and quays with boats, but notes that what he is most interested in is the motif of the iron bridge.
Camille Pissarro. Letter to Lucien Pissarro. October 2, 1896 [published and translated in John Rewald, ed., "Camille Pissarro, Letters to His Son Lucien," London, 1980, pp. 296–97], comments on the view from his hotel window.
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, son art—son œuvre. reprint ed. 1989. Paris, 1939, vol. 1, p. 215, no. 964; vol. 2, pl. 195, no. 964.
Anne Schirrmeister. Camille Pissarro. New York, 1982, pp. 15–16, colorpl. 18, mentions that it is one of a large series of paintings that illustrate the Pont Grand; remarks that the pedestrians and dock workers are sketchily indicated in a "caricatural style".
Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 96–97, ill. (color, overall and detail), states that the title "Matin, Temps Gris, Rouen" is thought to be Pissarro's own, without providing any source.
Richard R. Brettell and Joachim Pissarro. The Impressionist and the City: Pissarro's Series Paintings. Ed. Mary Anne Stevens. Exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art. New Haven, 1992, pp. 4, 13, 210, no. 5, colorpl. 5, state that it was painted between September 8 and November 12, 1896, and that it depicts the Pont Boïeldieu as seen from Pissarro's hotel window on the second floor on the Cours Boïeldieu.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 441, ill.
Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts in Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings. Milan, 2005, vol. 1, pp. 364, 366, 370–74, 376–77, 380–81, 383, 393, 395–98, 415; vol. 3, pp. 719, 955, 958, no. 1140, ill. (color).
Alexia de Buffévent in Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue of Paintings. Milan, 2005, vol. 1, p. 276.
Marie-Claude Coudert inA City for Impressionism: Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin in Rouen. Ed. Laurent Salomé. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Paris, 2010, pp. 295–96, no. 75, ill. p. 298 (color).
This picture is one of a large series, sixteen works, that Pissarro painted of the Pont Grand or the Pont Boïeldieu in Rouen as seen from the Hôtel d'Angleterre on the Cours Boïeldieu. The Met's work was painted between early September and early November of 1896.
Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)
1888
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