Camille Pissarro, Le jardin d'Eragny (detail), 1898, oil on canvas, 73,4 x 92,1 cm © National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection

This period saw research progress considerably, notably with the publication of the five volumes of Pissarro's correspondence, the inventory of the large collection of drawings from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the monumental catalog raisonné of the tables produced by Wildenstein Institute in Paris.

The year 2017 marks the return of this elder from the Impressionist group on the Parisian scene. In addition to the retrospective devoted to it by the Musée Marmottan Monet, which begins in February, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais is thus organizing an exhibition on a completely new subject at the Musée du Luxembourg, focusing on the last two decades of the career of the painter. Settled in the village of Éragny-sur-Epte, he developed a form of utopia which ran through his painting as well as his political commitment.

The artist's two great specialists, Richard Brettell and Joachim Pissarro, are reunited once again to curate this ambitious exhibition tackling the least studied and most complex period of Pissarro's career. These are spectacular, little-known paintings, drawings and engravings, created in Éragny over a period of twenty years. The artist moved there in the spring of 1884, renting a beautiful country house which he became the owner of in 1892 thanks to a loan granted by Claude Monet, and where he remained for all his life.

The exhibition includes not only the moving landscapes of this pseudo-farm, resolutely rustic and productive (as opposed to the colorful luxuriance of Giverny), which Pissarro has immortalized over the seasons, but also paintings representing a multitude of characters , designed in the workshop and located in the countryside of Éragny. An important place will be reserved for the graphic works of issarro designed during the same period, dazzling watercolors and engravings as radical as those of a Gauguin. Pissarro also invents a new artistic and family collaboration mode, notably in his collaboration with his son Lucien, which culminates in the creation of the Eragny Press. This small family-run publishing house, started in Éragny, will continue its activities in London, enhancing the family's favorite texts with illustrations and art bindings. Pissarro was passionate about the idea of ​​collective work, with other artists, theorists and political writers, as with members of his own family.

The aesthetics of Eragny's works take on their full meaning if they are analyzed from a political angle. We know that Camille Pissarro was a fervent anarchist and that he was therefore worried, wrongly naturally, after the assassination of Sadi-Carnot. The exhibition brings together testimonies of this commitment, showing in particular his astonishing collection entitled Turpitudes sociales where he became Daumier's heir, but also the anarchist newspapers to which he provided illustrations. These ideas are also reflected in his painting.

While Monet transforms his small vegetable garden in Giverny into a veritable flourishing Eden, Pissarro, with the help of his pragmatic wife Julie, maintains his land as a farm, producing animals, fruits and vegetables and even cereals. The Pissarro family was able to feed on the fruits of their agrarian work, putting into practice a collective model. For them, the landscape symbolized both life and beauty, a few flower beds growing in the sections of the garden closest to the large house.

It is striking to think that Monet's garden and Pissarro's farm bordered the same river, the Epte river, traversing the landscape from Eragny to Giverny before flowing into the Seine near Vernon.

The exhibitions devoted to Camille Pissarro so far have focused on a theme, such as The Impressionist in the City: Pissarro's Urban Series, directed by Joachim Pissarro and Richard Brettell in 1993, Cézanne and Pissarro 1865-1885 presented at MoMA in 2005 and at the Musée d'Orsay in 2006, Pissarro's People, organized by Richard Brettell in 2011, or more recently Pissarro in ports at MuMa Le Havre in 2013 (curators Annette Haudiquet and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts). Pissarro's project in Éragny develops another approach, centered on a little known aspect of the career, scrutinizing the method and the convictions of this father of impressionism. Many works will be shown for the first time in France, adding to the originality of the point of view the pleasure of a total discovery.

In comparison, 80 photographs presented from March 18 to July 23, 2017 on the gates of the Jardin du Luxembourg will testify, on the one hand, to the heritage interest of the garden through the great names of photography and, on the other hand, its artistic value through the lens of photographer Jean-Baptiste Leroux, recognized for his work on gardens labeled "Remarkable Garden". At the end of the "Extraordinary Gardens" competition launched by the Rmn-Grand Palais on the Wipplay platform in the summer of 2016, three winners will also have their photographs drawn in large format on the gates.

police station: Richard Brettell, director of the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History, The University of Texas, Dallas and Joachim Pissarro, Bershad professor of art history and director of art spaces at Hunter College, City University of New York
scenography: Etienne Lefrançois and Emmanuelle Garcia

Pratical information

opening : 10 a.m. to 30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 18 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday to Sunday
prices: € 12, TR € 8,5 (16-25 years old, job seekers and large families), Special Youth: € 8,5 for two tickets (Monday to Friday from 16 p.m.), free for children under 16 years, beneficiaries of social minima
access: M ° St Sulpice or Mabillon Rer B Luxembourg Bus: 58; 84; 89; Luxembourg Museum / Senate stop
information and reservations: museeduluxembourg.fr www.grandpalais.fr