The present lot will be included in the forthcoming online Pinchon Catalogue raisonné being prepared by Anne-Marie Letailleur, under number 1192. It is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Westchester, New York, c. 1929-2019.

By descent, Bluffton, South Carlina, 2019.

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2026.

Lot Note:

Robert Antoine Pinchon’s freshly rediscovered La Tour gothique de l’église Saint-Pierre de Carville à Darnétal captures the historic character of Normandy through one of the region’s most distinctive architectural landmarks. Located in Darnétal, just northeast of Rouen, the tower of Carville is a masterpiece of Flamboyant Gothic architecture, dating to 1525. Originally associated with the neighboring church of Saint-Pierre, it became a freestanding monument following a fire in 1562 during the Wars of Religion. Its richly articulated stonework and intricate Gothic ornament reflect the prosperity and artistic vitality of Normandy at the close of the Middle Ages. For Pinchon, the monument offered a subject in which the enduring presence of history could meet the changing effects of light and atmosphere. 

A leading figure of the second generation of the École de Rouen, Pinchon belongs to a distinguished tradition of artists who brought the principles of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to the landscapes and towns of Normandy. Emerging in the late nineteenth century, the Rouen School was never a unified movement governed by a single aesthetic doctrine, but rather a succession of painters connected by their regional roots and their engagement with modern painting. Inspired in part by the example of Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, artists including Charles Angrand, Joseph Delattre, Léon-Jules Lemaître, and Charles Fréchon explored the expressive possibilities of color, light, and painterly brushwork. Their successors, among them Pinchon and Pierre Dumont, carried this legacy into the twentieth century, incorporating bolder colors and increasingly liberated handling of paint. 

In this context, Pinchon’s depiction of the tower of Carville offers more than a picturesque view of a historic monument. It reflects the enduring dialogue between Normandy’s rich architectural heritage and the modern painter’s search for new ways of interpreting the visible world. By turning his attention to a familiar landmark near Rouen, Pinchon continues the regional tradition shaped by the Impressionists, reaffirming the central place of Normandy in the development of modern French landscape painting.

Framed: 31 1/2 x 39 in.

Significant deposits of surface dirt and dust; canvas is unlined and loose on the stretcher, with an area of distortion along the upper center edge to the canvas; a vertical stretcher bar mark extending through the center; one patch repair on the upper center verso, with corresponding inpainting on the recto; a few instances of pinpoint to small paint losses in scattered areas; overall structure is slightly torqued; canvas is very thin in areas; one pinpoint white paint droplet in the lower right corner, under a significantly discolored layer of varnish. Under UV light: the area of inpainting does not fluoresce; no additional areas of inpainting are visible. Additional images available upon request.

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