Artist: Camille Pissarro
Title: Femme Travaillant
Year created: 1872
Medium: Pencil
Edition: Original
Height (inches): 12
Width (inches): 14
Depth (inches): 2
Signed by the artist
Signed Area: front
This piece is framed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
Camille Pissarro is renowned as one of the great masters of the 19th century. The only painter to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions organized between 1874 and 1886, Pissarro became a pivotal artist and mentor within the movement. While the Impressionists are generally known for their depictions of city streets and country leisure, Pissarro covered his canvases with images of the day-to-day life of French peasants. Pissarro’s fame is rooted in the unique marriage of his fascination with rural subject matter and his empirical study of nature under different conditions of light and atmosphere, which was derived from intense study of French Realism. Pissarro’s paintings are delicate studies of the effect of light on color in nature. In fact, his articulation of scientific color theory in his later work proved indispensable for the following generation of avant-garde painters.
The 146-year-old drawing currently up for auction came directly from Pissarro’s sketch book, and was originally owned by Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro, the artist’s son and a critically acclaimed painter in his own right. While exhibited in a gallery in New York, the drawing caught the eye of Hollywood powerhouse Charles Feldman, who produced such classics as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seven Year Itch, and Walk on the Wild Side. After Feldman’s death, the drawing was inherited by his wife, Clotilde Barot, and was subsequently passed to successive generations.
Exquisitely matted and framed, the overall dimensions are approximately 14” x 12”. The sheet of paper on which the sketch is drawn measures approximately 6.25” x 3.5”. The drawing is in pencil, and the artist used India ink to sign his initials in the lower right portion of the image.
Dr. Joachim Pissarro, who is Camille Pissarro’s great-grandson as well as an art historian serving on the faculty of Hunter College in New York, has confirmed that the work currently up for auction will appear in the forthcoming book, Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings by Camille Pissarro. The winning bidder will receive a complimentary copy of the book as soon as it is published.