Camille Pissarro

Sale : Maître Pierre Blâche, Grenoble, 10 December 1979, lot 90
Acquired at the above sale

Executed on beige-coloured thick laid paper, not laid down, fixed to the overmount along the upper edge.The left and bottom edges are naturally irregular, and there is a thin strip of tape glued to the verso of the right edge. There are a few tiny dark spots of oxidation, and a light waterstain towards the lower right corner. Some light brown staining is visible on the verso. Apart from some light handling dirt to the edges (not visible when framed), this work is in good original condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"Most contemporary critics who wrote about Pissarro’s career considered him to be a painter of agricultural life, of a working landscape... Plots of well-tended land, carefully observed colour and texture differences between fields of cabbage and grass, and figures who work in the fields, are common elements of Pissarro’s Pontoise" (R. R. Brettell, Pissarro and Pontoise: the Painter in a Landscape, Yale, 1990, p. 58).

From the late 1870s, Pissarro enlarged his figures to dominate, rather than merely inhabit their surroundings. ‘He averts their gazes so as to deny psychological interaction with the viewer; he distorts the conventional relationship between the ground plane and the figure as Degas was doing at the same time, tilting the ground plane forward and pushing it around the figure so that the viewer seems, most often, to be looking down on the peasant’ (R. Brettell, op. cit., p. 134).

In the present work, the woman is at rest from her work in the fields, taking the time to repair a piece of clothing. She is bent forward, absorbed in her work and her thoughts, oblivious to the artist's gaze.