Landscape from Viroflay

Landscape from Viroflay, at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, dates to 1875 and shows Gauguin painting in the environs of Paris during his years as a Sunday painter employed at the Bertin brokerage house. Viroflay is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris near Versailles, and Gauguin's decision to paint its unremarkable countryside reflects the Impressionist conviction that any corner of contemporary landscape was a worthy subject. The work's presence at the Glyptotek is partly explained by Gauguin's later fame; collectors seeking his early work traced these modest landscapes.

The landscape is painted with competent Impressionist directness, the foliage handled in short, varied strokes that separate individual trees from the general green mass. Gauguin captures the flat quality of suburban Parisian light — diffuse, without the dramatic shadows of his later Brittany or Polynesian scenes.