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.

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	On View

Image Caption

Camille Pissarro, Route de Versailles, Louveciennes, Rain Effect, 1870, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.825

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.. 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. 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. 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.. 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.. 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.. 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. 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.. 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. 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. 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, Ludovico Rodo, and Lionello Venturi. Camille Pissarro, Son Art, Son Oeuvre. 2 volumes. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1939. Pissarro, Joachim and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts. Pissarro: Critical Catalogue pf Paintings. Vol. I-III. Paris: Wildenstein Institute Publications. 2005. 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. 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.

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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.