The present work is a study for the left hand figure of Pissarro's oil Les Sarcleuses, Pontoise (P. & V. 563) of 1882. Chalk or pencil studies for two of the other figures in the painting are housed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (for illustrations and full catalogue notes see R. Bretell and C. Lloyd Catalogue of Drawings by Camille Pissarro in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Oxford, 1980, nos. 125, 126). Of these, only the reclining figure (no. 125) is drawn on a similarly grand scale and shares the vigorous line and weight of the present drawing.

We are grateful to Joachim Pissarro and Christopher Lloyd for their help in researching this drawing.