During his first stay at Auvers-sur-Oise in 1873, C┼╜zanne painted several views of this picturesque village and its old cottages with their tired roofs and its houses with their glowing red tiles. Sometimes he would walk some distance away in order to catch a general view of the houses and surrounding coutryside: sometimes he would set up his easel in a small street of the village to capture the peaceful spectacle unrolling before his eyes. He settled in rue R┼╜my where stood the house of Dr. Gachet, although it is not shown here as he has deliberately devoided this painting of all familiar signs and human presence. Whilst Pissarro always included a figure in his landscapes, C┼╜zanne excludes all men and animals from them. He was not endeavouring to fix on the canvas a glimpse of his motif at a particular moment, but rather was interested in its timeless elements such as the volumes of the houses, the rendering of space through imbricated planes which would indicate depth without using the traditional illusion to give the perspective.
At that period when the painter was working almost daily beside Pissarro whom he regarded “as a father (…) almost a god”, his
