Дорога в Версаль, Лувесьен

Clear spring light, a road, two trees and the house Pissarro was renting at Louveciennes, west of Paris. He painted this stretch of the Versailles road over and over during the two years he lived there, using an unremarkable view to test different weather.

The date is the thing. In July 1870, a few months after a spring like this one, France declared war on Prussia. By September Pissarro had fled, eventually to London, and Prussian troops were quartered in the house. They put his canvases down on the muddy floors and used them in the garden. Of roughly 1,500 pictures left behind, about 40 came through.

The Clark owns this one and a second view of the same road under rain, painted from almost the same spot.