Alfred Pissarro (the artist's brother, a gift from the artist)
Thence by descent

Pontoise, Musée Camille Pissarro, Pissarro et Pontoise, 1980-81, no. 12
Pontoise, Musée Tavet-Delacour; Böblingen, Städtische Galerie & Tokyo, Nihombashi, Galerie de Mitsukoshi, Entre ciel et terre: Camille Pissarro et les peintres de la vallée de l'Oise, 2003-2004, nos. 25 & 27

Ludovico Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, son art—son oeuvre, vol. I, Paris, 1939, no. 1662, vol. II, illustrated pl. 312

In very good condition. The silk is laid down to a backing sheet which is hinged to a window mount on top and sides. The surface is exceedingly fresh and the colors are bright.
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.
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Among the vanguard of the Impressionist movement, Camille Pissarro is best known for his rural landscapes. Drawn to bucolic scenes, the artist created intimate representations of the people and land around him. Many of his works are particular to a precise location and illustrate the peasants and workers of specific corners of rural France. “When we consider the paintings as intimate landscapes and their figures as part of the artist’s social world, these works change profoundly. Far from being like Monet, Renoir, and Manet, who painted urban and suburban society without social access to the rural poor, the Pissarros lived amid and socialized with rural workers and the petite bourgeoisie” (Richard R. Brettell, Pissarro’s People (exhibition catalogue), Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 2011, p. 24). There is a sense of involvement and social intimacy that is unique to Pissarro’s work and is exemplified in a painting such as Gardeuse d’oies.

In the present work, a young girl is tending to her flock of geese along a riverbank, most likely in Eragny, where Pissarro lived from 1884 until the end of his life. This is a favored subject for Pissarro and it reveals a debt to the works of Millet, who painted similar arcadian scenes of rural life. According to Richard Brettell, the “simple pleasures and ease of rural life stand at the fore of Pissarro’s rural images of the 1880s and 1890s” (ibid., p. 181). Nature and one’s livelihood are both important themes for Pissarro, and his Gardeuse d’oies depicts the intersection of the two.