Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Paysanne assise et tricotant

Details

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Paysanne assise et tricotant
signed and dated 'C. Pissarro. 83' (lower left)
gouache over black chalk on paper mounted at the edges by the artist on board
18.7/8 x 12½ in. (48 x 31.4 cm.)
Painted in 1883

Provenance

Cotinaud Collection, Paris.
Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris.
Sam Salz, New York.
Wedding gift from the above to the late owner, circa 1942.

Literature

L. R. Pissarro and L. Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art--Son Oeuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, p. 269, no. 1360 (illustrated, vol. II, pl. 265).
Menorah, Vienna, 10 October 1930.

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, L'Oeuvre de C. Pissarro, April 1904, no. 149.
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Tableaux et gouaches par C. Pissarro, January 1910, no. 81.
Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Tableaux par Camille Pissarro, February-March 1928, no. 110.

Lot Essay

In the early 1880's, Pissarro took a fresh approach to his figure painting, which formed the basis of his most important work executed between 1880-1885. In these paintings, Pissarro placed less emphasis on the background and focused on the figure, enlarging it within the composition and thereby drawing the viewer to the inner state of mind of the sitter. Unlike the figures in his works of the 1870's, those Pissaro painted in the early 1880's tend to perform gentle tasks--chatting, resting, and reflecting--as exemplified in this painting of a woman knitting. The model was favored by Pissarro in his paintings of this period, and she also appears in, among other works, Étude de paysanne assise of 1882 (L. R. Pissarro and L. Venturi, no. 572).

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