Camille Pissarro

Arthur Tooth & Sons, London (acquired by 1952)

Mr & Mrs Jean-Claude Landau, U.S.A. (acquired by 1994)

Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht (on consignment from the above in 2005)

Private Collection, Belgium (acquired through the above in 2006. Sold: Sotheby’s, London, 25th June 2008, lot 11)

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Jerusalem, The Israel Museum & New York, The Jewish Museum, Camille Pissarro - Impressionist Innovator, 1995, no. 69, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute & San Francisco, Legion of Honor Museum, Pissarro’s People, 2011-12, no. 179, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no. 1453, catalogued p. 282; vol. II, no. 1453, illustrated pl. 282

Joachim Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, London, 1993, illustrated in colour p. 205

The linen canvas is unlined. Apart from some fine craquelure in the centre of the composition and in the background, this work is in very good, original condition. There is no retouching visible under ultra-violet light. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration.
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The market place was a motif that Pissarro returned to repeatedly throughout the 1880s and 1890s. Complementing his depictions of rural labourers at work and play, the market scenes capture the heart of life in rural France. Although the present work is a view of Gisors – the markets at Gisors and Pontoise were frequent subjects – the focus is not on location but in creating a sense of atmosphere. As with many of his market scenes, Pissarro focuses on a small group of neatly observed figures who dominate the foreground and beyond them he fills the canvas with a plethora of other characters, masterfully evoking the clamour and bustle of a busy market place. In the present work, the loosely sketched background and vigorous application of the pastel add further to the lively energy that suffuses the scene.

Joachim Pissarro has written extensively about the artist's depictions of the market, suggesting that these compositions offer a glimpse into his creative process: 'These paintings powerfully evoke the bustling dynamic of his imagination and of his compositional methods[...] For them he essentially resorted to a considerable variety of techniques, among which oil painting was not predominant. They suggest the continuum of the ebbing fluxes of the crowds gathering weekly, actively engaged in intense exchanges: buying, selling, bartering, testing, conversing, swearing, communicating, shouting, daydreaming, laughing, etc [...] the activity in these scenes hints at the bustling, plastic and compositional activity involved in depicting them' (J. Pissarro, op. cit., pp. 198-199).