In the early 1880s, Pissarro spent time in different towns in the French countryside, just outside of Paris. He was motivated by both practical and artistic reasons: Paris was a...
In the early 1880s, Pissarro spent time in different towns in the French countryside, just outside of Paris. He was motivated by both practical and artistic reasons: Paris was a costly city to live in on an artist's budget and they sought to expand their signature technique of painting 'en plein air' to environments with different light and colour.
In the countryside, Pissarro also had access to a new range of subjects. He produced several drawings and paintings of rural landscapes and elements of peasant life and labour, including animals such as the lamb in the present work.
This pastel drawing was once part of Jeffrey Archer’s famous art collection, alongside other works made by Pissarro in the French towns of Bazincourt and Eragny, as well as drawings by Henri Matisse, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard and Raoul Dufy.
London, JPL Fine Arts (in association with Private, Paris), Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903, May-July 1993, no. 10 (titled L’Agneau and dated circa 1881) London, Stern Pissarro Gallery, Camille Pissarro 1830-1903, St Thomas to Paris, November-December 2003, no. 38 (illustrated)