At the Window, rue des Trois Frères

1878–79

Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903

Camille Pissarro composed this pastel in front of a window in his apartment in the Montmartre district of Paris. He used his wife Julie as a model, as well as two young girls, who possibly memorialize his recently deceased daughters. Pissarro created many works at his rural residences outside of Paris, but in this pastel he embraced the interior—yet visibly urban—setting of his rented home. Even indoors, Pissarro found a way to investigate the effects of natural light, which is characteristic of his Impressionist style.

On View: Prints and Drawings, Gallery 242

Artist: Camille Pissarro
Title: At the Window, rue des Trois Frères
Origin: France
Date: Made 1878
Medium: Pastel on cream wove pastel paper, perimeter mounted on light gray wove paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated recto, lower right, in white pastel, over light blue pastel: C Pissarro"
Dimensions: 380 × 263 mm (primary support); 382 × 264 mm (secondary support)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2012.89

Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro: Son art—son oeuvre, vol. 1, Texte (P. Rosenberg, 1939), p. 293, no. 1540.
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro: Son art—son oeuvre, vol. 2, Planche (P. Rosenberg, 1939), p. 296, no. 47.

Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, “Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro,” Feb.–Mar. 1930, cat. 31.
Wellesley (Mass.) College Museums, Jewett Art Center, Mar. 29–June 8, 1986 (no cat.).
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master through Modern; The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, cat. 85 (ill.).

Estate of the artist, from 1903; sold, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Dec. 3, 1928, lot 18, to Marcel Bernheim. André Devilder (1868–1952), Phalempin, France, by 1930 [Paris 1930]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Nov. 21, 1932, lot 74, to Marcel Bernheim. Sold, Sotheby’s, London, Dec. 5, 1984, lot 311, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2012.

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