CAMILLE PISSARRO | La Charité

Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
Dr. Georges Viau, Paris (and sold: Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, March 21-22, 1907, lot 72)
M. Cahen (acquired at the above sale)
Hirschl & Adler, New York (and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, January 19, 1955, no. 94)
D. Kerschenbaum Collection
M. Borowitz Collection
Private Collection, Illinois (by descent from the above and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, April 26, 1961, lot 49)
Arthur & Kathryn Murray, New York (acquired at the above sale and sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, December 11, 1963, lot 54)
H. Benedek Collection
Paul Mellon, Upperville (and sold: Christie's, New York, November 15, 1983, lot 44)
Robert Holmes à Court, Perth, Australia (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner in 1998

Sydney, S.H. Ervin Gallery & Perth, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Images of Women: European and Australian, 1991, n.n.
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art & traveling, Camille Pissarro and the Pissarro Family, 1998, no. 26

Lionel-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son art, son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 375
Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro. Catalogue Critique of Paintings, vol. II, Paris, 2005, no. 479, illustrated in color p. 341

The canvas is lined. A thin web of craquelure throughout most of surface, particularly in the upper half. There is a layer of varnish on the surface. Under UV light, two small strokes of inpainting visible at the top right corner. No other significant restorations are visible, but the varnish is hard to read through. Good condition overall.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

During the autumn and winter months of 1874-76 Pissarro painted and drew the peasant population of the Mayenne region of southern Brittany. These paintings and their subject matter were largely inspired by the art of Millet, whose death in 1875 brought such imagery more forcibly to Pissarro's attention (see fig. 1). "The women in the farm interiors, sewing in silence or spinning by the fire, are readily found in Millet's oeuvre, as are the peasant figures tending animals or bringing in the harvest... [F]rom 1874 to 1876, the paint was applied more thickly, often with larger brushes and occasionally with a palette knife. The facture is more regular and the colour is more intense. The immediacy of physical sensation is retained in the tactile quality of the paint" (Richard Brettell, "Camille Pissarro: A Revision" in Pissarro (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London, 1981, pp. 27-28). For Pissarro, the rural countryside represented the very antithesis to modern urban life. Indeed, in paintings such as La Charité the artist celebrates, as Robert Herbert suggested, "ideals of health, honest labor and dignity which he set against the pollution and degraded labor of the city" (Robert Herbert, "City vs. Country: The Rural Image in French Painting from Millet to Gauguin" in Artforum, vol. 2, 1970, pp. 44-55).