Chestnut Vendor, St. Martin's Day Fair (Pontoise)

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

Pissarro was essentially a landscape artist, and the majority of his prints were landscapes with peasant figures. These images never showed workers exhausted by their labors, for Pissarro was primarily interested in conveying the pleasantness of the countryside and simple, rural life. In this scene of the chestnut vendor, the placing of figures in the foreground reflects the flat design and two-dimensional concept of space characteristic of the Japanese art that was influencing many French artists at the time.

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