Lot 502

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Description:

CAMILLE PISSARRO
FRENCH, 1830-1903
PORTEUSE DE FAGOTS, CIRCA 1883
Watercolor, pen and ink and graphite on card
Lower right initialed with a different hand: C.P. (This appears to have been added at a later date)

The Art Loss Register confirms that this item is not registered on their database.

Joachim Pissarro confirms that this watercolor will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings by Camille Pissarro.

"In 1880, Pissarro began what would become a large series of figure paintings focused on rural
women, shown at work or, more often, at rest in a rural environment. Pissarro's scenes of rural
leisure contrasted with Millet's depiction of peasants, who were shown for the most part engaged
in backbreaking labor, while Pissarro depicted a more relaxed sense of rural labor balanced by
plentiful leisure time. Pissarro completed a series of canvases in 1881 of rural women. Porteuse
de Fagots was likely drawn as a figure study in connection with this series of paintings of rural
female peasants from the early 1880s. In keeping with this series, the figure in Porteuse de Fagots
wears simple peasant costume and is depicted as strong and hardy rather than willowy and graceful.

Camille Pissarro frequently depicted rural peasants during his career, and this drawing fits into the
theme of peasants laboring on their farms or in the field. The watercolor in question is most closely
related to an oil painting by Camille Pissarro titled Paysanne portant un ballot, no. 719 in the
Pissarro & Durand-Ruel catalogue raisonné (reproduced here for your reference). Both the
watercolor and painting depict a peasant woman carrying a bundle on a path. The female figures
in the two works share similar basic traditional costume, a simple blouse tucked into a skirt with
an apron and a scarf wrapped around their head. The pose of the figure in the center of the
foreground in the painting is almost identical to that of the figure in the drawing. Both the figure
in the drawing and the painting are viewed in frontal view bending slightly forward with a bundle
over their left shoulder and with their right arm bent and crossing the chest to meet the left hand
holding the bundle. However, the two figures differ slightly in that in the painting the hands are
slightly further apart, whereas in the watercolor the right and left hands are almost touching, and
the shape of the bundle they are carrying over their shoulders differs a little. Another difference is
the position of the figure in the drawing which appears to be further down the path then the figure
in the painting. The path in both the painting and the watercolor appears to curve away to join up
the other lines of perspective and is depicted on a sloping plane"
Joachim Pissarro

    Provenance:
  • The Jules Strauss Collection, Paris; Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., London (purchased 1971) by descent, a Maryland Collector
  • Dimensions:
  • Full Sheet: 8 x 5 7/8 in. (20.32 x 14.92 cm.)
  • Artist Name:
  • CAMILLE PISSARRO
  • Medium:
  • Watercolor, pen and ink and graphite on card
  • Condition:
  • This work is hinged.
    There are some fox marks scattered around the work.
    There is some light damage.
    There is old tape on the verso where the work is hinged (see online jpeg)

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