CAMILLE PISSARRO (1830-1903)


Gossip at Sunset signed with the artist's initials 'C.P.' (lower right)pen and brown ink and pencil on buff paper25.9 x 20cm (10 3/16 x 7 7/8in).Executed between 1885 - 1890
|Dr. Joachim Pissarro has kindly confirmed that this work will be included in the forthcoming Camille Pissarro catalogue raisonné of Drawings and Watercolours.ProvenanceEsther Pissarro-Levi Bensusan Collection, UK. Orovida Camille Pissarro Collection, UK (a gift from the above in December 1948). Marion Leigh Collection, UK (a gift from the above in 1966).Thence by descent to the present owner.Gossip at Sunset presents a rural sunset scene centred on a male and female farmhand in deep discussion. The facial expression of the latter, along with the general draughtsmanship and handling, give the work an emotional charge and great intensity. The feeling behind the present work makes it very similar to a series of 28 pen and ink drawings that Camille Pissarro completed between 1885 - 1890, titled Turpitudes sociales. Turpitudes sociales was intended to educate Camille's nieces, Esther and Alice Isaacson, about the horrors of modern capitalist society and the series was to depict 'the most shameful ignominies of the bourgeoisie.' Often the drawings were accompanied by short paragraphs from the anarchist press, most frequently from La Révolte, formerly Le Révolté, which revealed Pissarro's sympathy with the anarchist movement. Whilst the present work is not a part of the final album, it is most likely a study, done in connection to Turpitudes sociales and therefore completed between 1885 - 1890. After its completion, the work found itself in the possession of Orovida Pissarro, the only child of Camille's eldest son Lucien, after it was given to her by her mother. This can be seen by the initials O.C.P. in the lower right corner of the work.