Camille Pissarro's painting purchased by Australia

Painting above represents art of Camille Pissarro, France, 1830-1903, Prairie à Éragny, 1886, Éragny, France, oil on canvas, 59.4 x 73.0.

ADELAIDE - The Art Gallery of South Australia has hosted French Impressionist painter, Camille Pissarro’s Prairie à Éragny (1886) for the Gallery’s permanent collection.

The painting was purchased for 4.5 million $ at at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art auction in New York. It represents the Gallery’s most significant acquisition until now.

Art Gallery of South Australia, Director Nick Mitzevich said ‘this landscape by Pissarro is a quintessential French Impressionist landscape – full of vitality and colour, created by Pissarro’s signature dynamic brushwork’.

‘Painted at a defining moment in Pissarro’s career, Prairie à Éragny will enrich the Gallery’s Impressionist collection, introducing a wonderful example of French Impressionism into the collection which has strong holdings of British Impressionism. This acquisition will elevate the national and international standing of the State’s collection’, Mitzevich said.

Through the generosity of private donors, plus funds from James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, the Gallery has been able to purchase Prairie à Éragny for the Gallery’s permanent collection.

‘I thank those donors who have already given their support to this historic acquisition; over the last eighteen months, through the Gallery Foundation Masterwork Appeal, $4.4 million has been raised. Additional fundraising is essential to finalise the purchase and public support is now being solicited for its acquisition’, Mitzevich said.

Camille Pissarro was a defining artist of the French Impressionist and Neo Impressionist movements.

The resplendent palette of warm pinks and mauves, vivid greens and bright powder blues is iconic, describing the landscape through the purity of colour juxtapositions, which he applied directly in short brush strokes to canvas.

Prairie à Éragny will be unveiled at the Art Gallery of South Australia on Friday 22 August 2024 and will be on public display in the Melrose Wing of European Art from Saturday 23 August 2014.