NARRATOR:
Camille Pissarro used a myriad of short brushstrokes to build this densely packed Impressionist scene of the bustling poultry market at Pontoise, the town near Paris where he lived.
Three peasants, their backs turned toward us, dominate the composition. In the background, in a haze of color, smaller figures mill about among the poultry stands. Notice the ducks at the bottom left and at the right, a basket, with eggs nestled in hay that glints in the sun.
Pissarro pushes us deeply into the picture, allowing us to experience this busy market close-up. We can almost sense the rough fabrics of the farmer’s hand-woven clothing and hear their noisy chatter. Yet, despite our proximity, none of the principal actors acknowledges us in any way. We are at once immersed in and detached from the scene.
In the 1880s, Pissarro painted a number of market scenes. The eldest of the Impressionist painters, he helped organize their first exhibition in 1874. Subjects like this one reflect his staunch socialist sympathies. He himself lived on the edge of poverty until he was well over 60. He died in 1903, at the age of 73.
The Poultry Market at Pontoise
1882
Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903)
Not on View
Although Pissarro was primarily a landscape painter, he produced an important group of market scenes portraying peasants in dramatic close-up. Here, a woman selling eggs at the artist’s local poultry market stands with her back to us, on the lookout for her next customer. Painted with the bright colors and palpitating brushwork of Pissarro’s late Impressionist style, the picture is insistently modern and insists on the modernity of the people it represents. Whereas earlier painters had depicted French peasants as figures outside of time, mystically united with the land, Pissarro painted them as his neighbors, working to feed their families as he did to feed his own.
Details
- Artist Name: Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903)
- Title: The Poultry Market at Pontoise
- Date: 1882
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 31 7/8 x 25 5/8 in. (81 x 65.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1984.2.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
The artist, sold 15 December 1887 to;
[Boussod & Valadon (Theo van Gogh), Paris, sold 15 December 1887 to];
[Guyotin, Paris].
[Bernheim Jeune, Paris, ca. October, 1916, sold 14 March 1922 to];
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold 20 February 1923 to];
Albert Poullot, Paris, still in 1930.
[Jacques Dubourg, Paris, by 1937, still in 1938].
[C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, in 1939-still in 1942].
Mlle. Janine Darrigol, Paris, by 1956 until at least 1962.
[Galerie Schmit, Paris, sold 6 November 1967, as La Marché à la volaille Pontoise, to];
Norton Simon, sold 28 January 1981 to;
[E. V. Thaw & Co., New York].
[Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, sold 3 December 1984, as The Market at Pontoise, to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[Boussod & Valadon (Theo van Gogh), Paris, sold 15 December 1887 to];
[Guyotin, Paris].
[Bernheim Jeune, Paris, ca. October, 1916, sold 14 March 1922 to];
[Durand-Ruel, Paris, sold 20 February 1923 to];
Albert Poullot, Paris, still in 1930.
[Jacques Dubourg, Paris, by 1937, still in 1938].
[C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, in 1939-still in 1942].
Mlle. Janine Darrigol, Paris, by 1956 until at least 1962.
[Galerie Schmit, Paris, sold 6 November 1967, as La Marché à la volaille Pontoise, to];
Norton Simon, sold 28 January 1981 to;
[E. V. Thaw & Co., New York].
[Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York, sold 3 December 1984, as The Market at Pontoise, to];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Pissarro
- Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1928-02 to 1928-03
Paintings and Drawings by Camille Pissarro
- London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1937-11 to 1937-11
A Collection of XIXth Century French Paintings
- New York, C.W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, 1939-01-30 to 1939-02-25
The Development of Impressionism
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1940-01-12 to 1940-02-28
Exposition Camille Pissarro, organisée au profit de la Société des Amis du Louvre
- Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1956-06-26 to 1956-09-14
Camille Pissarro 1830-1903
- Kunstmuseum Bern, 1957-01-19 to 1957-03-10
C. Pissarro 1830-1903, Exposition organisée au profit de la Société des Amis du Louvre
- Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1962-05-29 to 1962-09-28
XIX & XX Century Master Paintings
- New York, Acquavella Galleries, Inc., 1981-10-30 to 1981-11-30
Centenaire de la naissance de Camille Pissarro
- Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, 1930-02 to 1930-03
All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food
- Norton Simon Museum, 2023-04-14 to 2023-08-14
By Day & By Night: Paris in the Belle Époque
- Norton Simon Museum, 2019-10-04 to 2020-03-02
- Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum Pasadena, California, p. 101
- Pissarro, Joachim, Camille Pissarro, no. 247 p. 208
- Schirrmeister, Anne, Camille Pissarro, fig. 9
- Architectural Digest, p. 111
- Cogniat, Raymond, Pissarro, p. 39
- Lloyd, Christopher, Pissarro, fig. 28 pp. 7, 15
- Charensol, Georges, L'art Vivant, 1929, p. 188
- Édouard-Joseph, René, Dictionnaire biographique des artistes contemporaines 1910-1930, 1934, p. 144
- Venturi, Lionello, Les archives de l'Impressionisme, 1939, p. 62
- Pissarro, Ludovic Rodo; and Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro: son art-son oeuvre, 1939, vol. I, no. 576; vol. II, pl. 120
- Shikes, Ralph E.; and Paula Harper, Pissarro: His Life and Work, 1980, p. 157
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 137
- Brettel, Richard R., Pissarro and Pontoise, 1990, pp. 25-28
- Lloyd, Christopher, Camille Pissarro, 1993, p. 91
- Jirat-Wasiutynski, Vojtech; and H. Travers Newton, Jr., Technique and Meaning in the Paintings of Paul Gauguin, 2000, no. 30 pp. 71, 73
- Joachim Pissarro, Claire Durand-Ruel, Catalogue raisonne de Camille Pissarro - peintures, 2005, Plate 682 p. 456
- Brettell, Richard R; and Anne-Brigitte Fonsmark, Gauguin and Impressionism, 2005, fig. 131 p. 172
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 397 p. 293
- Brettell, Richard R., Pissarro's People, 2011, Fig. 174 p. 227
- Kunstmuseum Basel, Camille Pissarro: The Studio of Modernism, 2021, fig. 7 p. 117, p. 116 (ill.)
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