Artwork
The Fence
The Fence is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. It dates from 1872 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower left: C. Pissarro. 1872
About this work
Subject & Meaning
While the title suggests a man-made boundary, the surviving documentation identifies the tree as the specific element depicted within the composition.
Camille Pissarro's 1872 painting, The Fence, is a landscape work that depicts a tree as its primary visual subject. While the title suggests a man-made boundary, the surviving documentation identifies the tree as the specific element depicted within the composition. As a landscape genre piece, the work focuses on natural elements rather than narrative scenes or allegorical figures.
The available records do not provide explicit interpretations regarding deeper symbolism, allegorical meaning, or specific iconographic programs associated with the tree or the implied fence. Consequently, the work is understood primarily as a representation of a natural scene featuring arboreal forms, consistent with Pissarro's landscape practice of the period, without further elaborated symbolic content in the provided sources.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1872, this landscape is an oil painting on canvas support. The work measures 37.8 by 45.7 centimeters. Visually, the composition focuses on a tree as its primary depicted subject.
The application of oil paint on the woven fabric creates the textural foundation for Pissarro's representation of the natural environment. As a two-dimensional painted surface, the piece relies on the interplay of pigment and ground to define its formal qualities. The physical object has survived from the nineteenth century to the present, currently held within a major institutional collection, indicating a state of preservation suitable for public display.
History & Provenance
The Fence, an oil on canvas landscape painted by Camille Pissarro in 1872, entered the market at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 18 February 1878, listed as _La Haie_ and bought by Georges de Bellio. It remained in Bellio’s collection and passed to his daughter Mme Ernest Donop de Monchy until at least 1937, then moved through the dealers Paul Rosenberg and César de Hauke by 1939. Arthur Goldsmith acquired it in Paris, later selling it to Walter Feilchenfeldt in Zurich, then to Georges Seligmann Inc. in New York, and finally to Paul Mellon in 1955; Mellon gifted the work to the National Gallery of Art in 1985.
Overview
Camille Pissarro's 1872 oil on canvas, titled The Fence, presents a landscape scene. The painting centers on a prominent tree, positioned behind a fence, with the surrounding environment also rendered. This work exemplifies Pissarro's engagement with natural settings and his characteristic approach to capturing the rural landscape.
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Artist & collection
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