The Art Institute of Chicago
Young Peasant Having Her Coffee
Description
In the 1880s, at a time when many of the original Impressionist painters had begun to pursue independent styles, Camille Pissarro actively worked to keep the group together. He persuaded Gustave Caillebotte and Claude Monet to take part in the seventh Impressionist exhibition, in 1882, and also displayed a number of his own paintings of peasant girls. Here the small brushstrokes, applied one next to the other and sometimes overlaid with dabs of thicker paint, result in an irregularly built-up surface, serving to integrate figure and setting and evoke the textures of the young woman’s wool clothing.
Provenance
The artist (d. 1903); sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, December 19, 1881 [this and the two following per Pissarro and Snollaerts 2005]; sold to Georges Petit, Paris, August 9, 1883; sold back to Durand-Ruel, Paris, April 17, 1891, for 1,000 francs; sold to Potter Palmer (d. 1902), Chicago, April 29, 1892, for 3,000 francs [per Durand-Ruel Archives, Paris stock no. 912, as Le Café au lait, as confirmed by Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 13, 1994, curatorial object file]; by descent to the Palmer family; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Dimensions
65.3 × 54.8 cm (25 11/16 × 21 9/16 in.)
Movement / Period
Accession No
81548
Official Citations
Curatorial Affinity Stream
Continuing the Universe of Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903)
Post-Impressionism • France • Harmonious Works & Contemporaries
Continuous Discovery