Paysannes assises by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro
1830-1903 | French

Paysannes assises
(Seated Peasant Women)

Signed "C Pissarro" (lower left)
Crayon on paper

This intimate work by Camille Pissarro represents a period of great significance for the Impressionist master. The early 1880s were years of remarkable innovation for the artist, after he spent much of the preceding decade devoted to landscape painting. Shifting focus, he embarked on a series of works in a range of media dedicated to the human figure—particularly the rural laborers and peasant women who became central to his art. This vibrant drawing of two seated peasants is an exceptional example of Pissarro’s remarkable works on paper.

Depicting two peasant figures seated in quiet conversation, the work captures the dignity and intimacy of rural life with extraordinary immediacy. One figure, dressed in a blue skirt and red kerchief, sits with hands folded, while the other turns toward her in profile, her yellow headscarf and blue skirt enlivening the composition. Rendered with spontaneous strokes of pastel, the scene displays the harmony of color, movement and atmosphere that typifies Pissarro’s work of the 1880s. The soft green ground, warm paper tone and vivid touches of blue, yellow and red give the drawing the freshness of a moment observed directly from life.

Born in St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, Pissarro was sent to school in Paris at the age of 11, where he first displayed a talent for drawing. In 1855, having convinced his parents of his determination to pursue a career as an artist rather than work in the family shipping business, he returned to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Suisse alongside Claude Monet. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Pissarro moved to England. Along with Monet, he painted a series of landscapes around South-East London and studied English landscape painters in the museums. When he returned home to Louveciennes a year later, Pissarro discovered that all but 40 of the 1,500 paintings he had left there—almost 20 years of work—had been vandalized.

In 1872, Pissarro settled in Pontoise, where he remained for the next 10 years, gathering a close circle of friends around him. Gauguin was among the many artists to visit him there, and Cézanne, who lived nearby, came for long periods to work and learn. In 1874, Pissarro participated in the first Impressionist exhibition and became the only painter to exhibit in all eight of their shows, underscoring why he is known today as the “Father of Impressionism.” His revolutionary approach to painting and his deeply human compositions had a profound effect on his contemporaries and the future of modern art. His work can be found in many of the most important museums and private collections throughout the world.

This work is accompanied by its certificate of authenticity from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute and will be included in their forthcoming digital catalogue raisonné.

Circa 1880

Paper: 16 1/8” high x 22” wide (41 x 55.9 cm)
Frame: 26 1/2” high x 31 3/4” wide x 3/4” deep (67.3 x 80.7 x 2 cm)

Provenance:
Erna Stiebel Collection Sale of the above; Christie’s New York, 11 May 1995, lot 231 Paolo Dal Bosco, Trento (acquired at the above sale) Private Collection, Europe