Camille Pissarro Peasants in a field 1891 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Haymakers at Éragny 1896 lithograph on cream chine collé British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Peasants carrying firewood 1896 lithograph on blue chine collé British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Peasants carrying hay ca. 1900 drypoint British Museum |
"Pissarro's earliest figure drawings can easily be compared with those of Cézanne, Degas, and Seurat, against which they fall a bit short. Pissarro did not, like his three more talented contemporaries, put a personal stamp on these drawings; rather, they have an air of duty about them. . . . Pissarro was too concerned with being successful at his task to be original or even eloquent. Yet he did have stamina and ability, and when he approached the figure again in the 1870s, he was ready to develop his work to a considerably higher technical and aesthetic level."
"Surely the example in this was Degas, whose figural works on paper, including charcoal and pastel drawings, Pissarro had seen numerous times, even in the Impressionist exhibitions. These powerful works provided a level of traditional skill and experimentation that Pissarro rose to as he applied Degas's lessons of eccentric composition, and his interest in clothed or partially clothed figures, to rural models. Fascinatingly, many, perhaps even the majority, of Pissarro's figure drawings represent standing subjects, many of whom perform some kind of activity associated with work. This too has its origins not in the atelier, with its posed figures, but in Degas's studies of laundresses, dancers, and horseback riders as they exercised or worked. These "modern" bodies were as important to Pissarro as they were to Degas. As Pissarro worked increasingly with rural models in Pontoise and Montfoucault (they were less expensive to hire, compared to urban models), he began to represent them with increasing confidence and élan."
– Richard R. Brettell in Pissarro's People, an exhibition catalog issued by Prestel in 2011
Camille Pissarro Peasant carrying buckets 1889 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Goose girl 1888 drypoint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Haymaker at Éragny 1897 etching, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Rain effect 1879 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Twilight (with haystacks) 1879 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Brush-cutters 1896 lithograph on cream chine collé British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Sunday rest in the wood 1891 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Church and farm at Éragny 1890 color etching British Museum |
Camille Pissarro Self-portrait ca. 1890 drypoint, aquatint British Museum |
Bernard Klene Portrait of Camille Pissarro ca. 1900 lithograph British Museum |