Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

In April 1884, Pissarro moved from Pontoise to Eragny, renting a large house on the river Epte. Living near the thriving farmer's market of Gisors, Pissarro began to focus again on the human figure and, in doing so, created compositions that articulated his interest in the relationship between city and country living. La cueillette des pommes, painted shortly after Pissarro’s arrival to his new bucolic home, demonstrates his idealistic outlook on peasant life through an array of verdant greens and sunny yellows. Pissarro found pleasure in depicting the equality of the peasants in their chores, far removed from the rules and hierarchies of metropolitan existence.

La cueillette des pommes is one of four works painted on faience, an earthenware ceramic, which the artist created to decorate the sides of a jardinière (decorative planter). The series, including La récolte des pommes de terre, Paysanne dans un champ de choux and La Saint-Martin à Pontoise, represents four distinct seasons of harvest and explores the peasants that captivated Pissarro’s imagination in their various stages of yearly toil.

The figures in La cueillette des pommes meld seamlessly with their surroundings and do not stand out starkly as individuals. There is an element of unity between man and nature that Pissarro sought to touch upon in his depictions of country life. Avoiding elements of narrative and symbolism, he strove to paint images with a sense of ease and mindlessness. For Pissarro, the physical release associated with manual labor brought humanity closer to nature.

The act of apple picking specifically, in contrast to the back-breaking work depicted in the peasant paintings of Jean-François Millet or Gustave Courbet, is a less strenuous task, especially in the pleasant setting of a late summer or crisp early fall day when apples are ripe. Pissarro saw the carelessness of the mellow apple-pickers as charmingly similar to the comfort of the urban bourgeoisie, despite their obvious contrast in lifestyles.

Pissarro envisioned his vocation as an artist as analogous to the routine of the peasant; there was the need to apply oneself, to understand the rhythms of nature and to undertake each task in its proper time. His approach to art was not that of the isolated and brooding genius; instead, Pissarro saw himself as a member of a community of like-minded individuals working towards a common goal, much like the apple pickers of La cueillette des pommes. In his philosophy as well as his artistic practice, Pissarro immersed himself in the settings he wished to explore.