In November 1852, Pissarro arrived in Caracas and stayed three until August 1854. It was during this trip to Venezuela that he executed this double-sided drawing Catouche-Caracas (recto) Le Marché à Caracas (verso). John Rewald writes about this period of Pissarro's work 'Very little is known about the life that Pissarro led in Venezuela, except that it must have been a very active one, and that since he seldom worked in oils (at least no oil paintings from this period have been preserved), he probably spent more time in the open than in his studio'. He later characterizes Pissarro's artistic development there 'the artist formed there a pictorial approach which, in his drawings and watercolours is that of a born painter, (cf. J Rewald, Camille Pissarro in Venezuela, New York, 1964, pp. 24-25)

The inscription 'catouche' refers to a wooded ravine near Caracas. Brettell and Lloyd describe this particular drawing 'Pissarro in the company of Fritz Melbye made a number of drawings in the area ...' formerly in the possession of Lucien Pissarro (CI neg. 52/46 (4)), no details known), which is a general view overlooking the ravine, apparently drawn in pen and ink over pencil and inscribed in pen Catouche-Caracus' (cf. R. Brettell and C. Lloyd, Camille Pissarro in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1980, p. 102). Three other known drawings by Pissarro bearing the inscription 'catouche' are likely to have been executed on the same outing and on sheets of paper from the same sketching tablet. The first is at the Ashmolean Museum (Brettell and Lloyd, no. 26 recto), and the second is a botanical study in the collection of the Banco Central de Venezuela, and the other is in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (inventory: 59.65)