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Sotheby’s to auction a masterpiece by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro - Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps

Camille Pissarro
Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps (1897)

Sotheby’s to auction a masterpiece by Camille Pissarro On 5th February 2014, Sotheby’s will auction for the first time ever ‘Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps’ (1897), arguably the most important work by Camille Pissarro ever to appear at auction.]]>

January 5th, 2014, source: Sotheby’s

One of the most important Impressionist masterworks to come to auction in the last decade, thepainting was originally owned by Max Silberberg, a Jewish industrialist based in Breslau, who assembledone of the finest pre-war collections of 19th and 20th Century art in Germany. Forced by the Nazis to sellhis entire collection, he later died in the Holocaust. The painting was restituted in 2000 to Max Silberberg’sfamily and will now be offered at auction in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 5thFebruary 2014 with an estimate of £7-10 million.

Camille Pissarro’s series paintings of Paris are among the supreme achievements of Impressionism, taking their place alongside Monet’s series of Rouen Cathedral and the later waterlilies. He worked methodically for over two months on his Boulevard Montmartre series and held this particular painting in especially high esteem, writing to his dealer Durand-Ruel, “I have just received an invitation from the Carnegie Institute for this year’s exhibition: I’ve decided to send them the painting Boulevard Montmartre, matinée de printemps… So please do not sell it“.

The artist was able to exploit the artistic possibilities presented by the new urban landscape of Paris that Haussmann’s renovations to the city had created. He extolled the artistic possibilities in a letter to his son Lucien: “It may not be very aesthetic, but I’m delighted to be able to have a go at Paris streets, which are said to be ugly, but are [in fact] so silvery, so bright, so vibrant with life […] they’re so totally modern!“.

Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department Europe, described the painting as “the greatest work by Camille Pissarro ever to appear at auction – a work that encompasses such a richly painted canvas and a supremely elegant composition“.

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Camille Pissarro – exhibition at the Thyssen Museum (2013)

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Sotheby's to auction a masterpiece by Camille Pissarro