With strong horizontal lines, crossed by diagonal pastures and tilled soil, Landscape is a testament to Gauguin’s rapid assimilation of plein air painting techniques during his early years. Painted in 1873, it is one his earliest known, fully resolved works. If you look closely near the signature in the bottom left of the painting, there is the number ‘7’ before the year ‘73’. This refers to the month of September, and this painting depicts the French countryside in early autumn. Two small figures work at opposing ends of the field: a cart is nearby, the yellow stubble of the recent harvest in the field behind them, indicating the results of their labour.
Gauguin’s early paintings were often landscapes, and reflect his knowledge of French artistic traditions, along with his new awareness of the Impressionist movement. In 1873, the 25-year-old Gauguin was close to Gustave Arosa, a businessman who was his legal guardian following the death of his mother Aline in 1867. Arosa was an enthusiastic art collector and owned works by Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Jean-Baptiste Corot, Eugène Delacroix and Honoré Daumier among others. Gauguin often studied these works, observing how the paint was applied to the canvas and how a scene was composed, with human figures for scale.
Landscape is very similar to a painting by Camille Pissarro titled Spring, from 1872, which Gauguin likely encountered in the collection of Arosa’s brother, Achille. The influence of Pissarro is clear: the stippled brushwork of the trees and the daubed paint used to depict the pasture in the foreground closely resembles the older artist’s techniques. Gauguin would later befriend Pissarro who would mentor the younger artist’s growing artistic talents. Although Gauguin soon ventured in other directions to the Impressionists, he often referred to Pissarro as his ‘dear teacher’.
