Le March aux pommes de Landerneau (The Apple Market at Landerneau)

Le March aux pommes de Landerneau is the original study for Lhermitte's monumental entry of the same title to the Salon of 1878. Numerous detail studies exist for the painting, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as drawings made after the painting for publication in the journal l'Art. However, the present work appears to be the definitive model from which Lhermitte worked. The drawing is scaled for transfer and numbered along the upper and left edges, and with a few minor exceptions, is exact in almost every detail to the oil painting. While working on the Salon painting, Lhermitte modified its composition at the request of M. Didier, his patron and the original owner of the painting. He removed the ossuary attached to the church, seen in the left of the drawing, and replaced it with the Calvary statue of Mezy and several trees, thereby opening up the composition.

A chronicler of contemporary peasant life, Lhermitte here depicts the important regional Breton market of Landerneau with an eye for documentary detail. The Place de Saint-Thomas-de-Cantorbry is rendered almost exactly as it existed. The men are seen in the traditional costume of Plougastel, and the village women wear a local style of bonnet know as "marmottes," which tie in the back and distinguish them from the peasant women with their head-kerchiefs. Although a chalk study, this drawing possesses the same impressive feeling of its oil counterpart and attests to Lhermitte's considerable skill and reputation as a draftsman.

Monique Le Pelley Fonteny has confirmed the authenticity of this drawing, which will be included as no. 182-1 in the forthcoming supplement to her Lhermitte catalogue raisonn.