On 5 November 2013, auction house Bonhams has scheduled a Modern and Impressionist Art Sale. Camille Pissarro’s masterpiece – Le Jardin de Maubuisson, Pontoise, la Mere Bellette leads the sale, with an estimated price of $1,500,000 to 2,000,000. The painting which dates from 1882, portrays a vegetable garden located behind Pissarro’s house in Pontoise. It was formerly in the collections of noted connoisseur Alfred Bergaud and French Prime Minister Fernand Bouisson before being exhibited by the Wildenstein Gallery in New York in 1947 where it was purchased by the family of the current owner.
Camille Pissarro‘s importance resides not only in his visual contributions to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but also in his patriarchal standing among his colleagues, particularly Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin. In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the “pivotal” figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members.
Cezanne called him “a man worth consulting, and something like God Himself,” while Monet compared him to Moses.
