9 / 120
250
●
CAMILLE PISSARRO
Paysanne donnant à manger à un enfant
.
Etching printed in dark brownish black, 1874. 125x121 mm; 4
7
/
8
x4
3
/
4
inches, full margins.
First state (of 4), before the addition of aquatint. One of only 2 or 3 impressions in this
state, from a total of approximately only 15 lifetime impressions in all four states combined.
Inscribed “No. 1 Epreuve d’état” in pencil, lower left.A superb, evenly-printed impression
of this extremely scarce, early etching.
The dozen or so etchings Pissarro executed before Degas introduced him to more
experimental printmaking techniques around 1879 are all of a more traditional manner
and style that recall prints from the 1860s by Barbizon painter-etchers such as Charles-
François Daubigny, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and, in this genre scene etching of a
mother and child in an interior setting, Jean-François Millet.
An impression of this subject in the first state once belonged to the French collector, Dr.
Paul F. Gachet (and subsequently his son, P.L.L. Gachet), who treated Vincent van Gogh
at Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890 (Pissarro had recommended Dr. Gachet toVan Gogh); it sold
at Swann, March 7, 2013, sale 2306, lot 125.
Pissarro added aquatint to the plate in the second state and progressively darkened the
interior through the third and fourth (final) states, so that ultimately the glow from the
fireplace at right illuminates the two figures and casts shadows on the floor and wall to
the left. In this first state, the pure etching bears it’s closest resemblance to Millet’s etchings.
Delteil 12.
[2,000/3,000]
PISSARRO,
Paysanne donnant à manger à un enfant
,etching and
aquatint, 1874, fourth state (of 4).
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET,
La Bouillie
,etching,1861.