Durand-Ruel, Paris
Private Collection, London (sale: Sotheby's, London, 26th June 1985, lot 310)
Sale: Christie's, New York, 19th November 1998, lot 232
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Ludovic Rodo-Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art - son œuvre, Paris, 1939, vol. I, no. 1362, catalogued p. 270; vol. II, no. 1362, illustrated pl. 267

Executed on cream wove paper, laid down on board. There are some minor specks of paper loss towards the lower left corner below the signature (visible in the catalogue illustration) and some further minor areas of paper loss to all four corners. There are a few minor nicks in some areas along the edges, due to frame rubbing, and not visible when framed. Apart from some very light craquelure to the green pigment in the lower area and in the upper left quadrant and some light surface dirt towards the edges, this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the pastel tones are more prominent and the colours are overall more subtle in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed in 1882, the present work depicts an everyday scene of a local peasant and her livestock from the town of Pontoise, where Pissarro lived from 1866 until 1883. In deciding to move to Pontoise, the artist was partly guided by a desire to separate himself from the influence of his predecessors, the established French landscape painters, and to depict an environment scarcely recorded by other masters. Located some twenty-five miles northwest of Paris, Pontoise was built on a hilltop, with the river Oise passing through it, elements which made it a highly picturesque environment in which to paint en plein-air. The town's economy included agriculture as well as industry, and offered Pissarro a wide range of subjects, from crowded semi-urban genre scenes, views of roads and factories, to farmers working on the fields and particularly the melding of the urban, suburban and rural worlds. 

The present work may be seen as a prime example of this study, as it depicts a humbly dressed peasant woman with her cow, meandering through the lush meadows of Pontoise.  The subject matter is reminiscent of Millet who presented peasants working the land.  However, unlike Millet who presented faceless laborers, Pissarro presents us with intimate, casual portraits of the individuals he observed throughout Pontoise. 

'In the figure paintings of 1879-83, Pissarro enlarged the figures so that they are no longer staffage figures.  He allows them instead to dominate their surroundings.  He contorts their limbs in active, even distracting poses; he averts their gazes so as to deny psychological interaction with the viewer; he distorts the conventional relationship between the ground plane and the figure as Degas was doing at the same time, tilting the ground plane forward and pushing it around the figure so that the viewer seems most often to be looking down on the peasant' (Richard Brettell, Pissarro and Pontoise: the Painter in a Landscape, Yale, 1990, p. 134).