Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/camille-pissarro-1776" aria-label="More by Camille Pissarro" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Camille Pissarro</a>
Pork Butcher
Bequeathed by Lucien Pissarro, the artist's son 1944
adults
architecture
basket
butcher
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
crowd
domestic
Estruc, Eugenie
food and drink
France
groups
individuals: female
market
meat
named individuals
objects
people
places
Pontoise
portraits
public and municipal
shopping
trading and commercial
vessels and containers
woman
work and occupations
<p>Like 'The Little Country Maid', this painting was executed while the artist lived near Pontoise, north-west of Paris. During the 1880s he became interested in painting rural market scenes, several of which were based on the markets at Pontoise and its neighbouring villages. Such subjects allowed Pissarro to combine the study of the human figure with depictions of outdoor scenes of everyday rural life. Although he wrote to his son Lucien that he wished the painting to have a 'certain naive freshness', hence the light and informal brushstrokes, the central figure of the 'charcutière' was painted from the model and the pose carefully studied.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 1997
5 March 1997
1997-03-05
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
1997-03-05
Long Loan to the National Gallery
Loan-out
14 January 2005 – 2 October 2005
2005-10-02
14 January 2005 – 3 April 2005
2005-04-03
2005-01-14
City Art Gallery (Bristol, UK)
15 April 2005 – 3 July 2005
2005-07-03
2005-04-15
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
14 July 2005 – 2 October 2005
2005-10-02
2005-07-14
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2005-01-14
Objects
Loan-out
5 June 2011 – 22 January 2012
2012-01-22
5 June 2011 – 2 October 2011
2011-10-02
2011-06-05
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, USA)
http://www.clarkart.edu/
22 October 2011 – 22 January 2012
2012-01-22
2011-10-22
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2011-06-05
Pissarro's People
Loan-out
12 October 2014 – 22 February 2015
2015-02-22
12 October 2014 – 22 February 2015
2015-02-22
2014-10-12
Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal, Germany)
2014-10-12
Camille Pissarro - Vater des Impressionismus
Loan-out
23 February 2017 – 2 July 2017
2017-07-02
23 February 2017 – 2 July 2017
2017-07-02
2017-02-23
Musée Marmottan Monet (Paris, France)
2017-02-23
Camille Pissarro
Loan-out
16 February 2019 – 5 May 2019
2019-05-05
16 February 2019 – 5 May 2019
2019-05-05
2019-02-16
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2019-02-16
Building a New World: Impressions of Industry in the Late-Nineteenth Century
Loan-out
1 September 2021 – 12 June 2022
2022-06-12
4 September 2021 – 23 January 2022
2022-01-23
2021-09-04
Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
18 February 2022 – 12 June 2022
2022-06-12
2022-02-18
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2021-09-01
Camille Pissarro. The Studio of Modernism
Loan-out
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
1 May 2025 – 1 May 2026
2026-05-01
2025-05-01
National Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
2025-05-01
National Gallery Bicentenary
Loan-out
The Pork Butcher
support: 651 × 543 mm
Bequeathed by Lucien Pissarro, the artist's son 1944
<p>Like 'The Little Country Maid', this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> was executed while the artist lived near Pontoise, north-west of Paris. During the 1880s he became interested in painting rural market scenes, several of which were based on the markets at Pontoise and its neighbouring villages. Such subjects allowed Pissarro to combine the study of the human figure with depictions of outdoor scenes of everyday rural life. Although he wrote to his son Lucien that he wished the painting to have a 'certain naive freshness', hence the light and informal brushstrokes, the central figure of the 'charcutière' was painted from the model and the pose carefully studied.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Camille Pissarro</b><span> 1830-1903 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pissarro-the-pork-butcher-n05576" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05576</span></a> </span><b>La Charcutière</b><span> (The Pork-Butcher) 1883 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'C. Pissarro 1883' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 21 3/8 (65 x 54.5)</span>
<br/><span>Bequeathed by Lucien Pissarro to the National Gallery 1944; transferred 1950</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Lucien Pissarro, London</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Pictures by Camille Pissarro</i><span>, Stafford Gallery, London, October 1911 (20); </span><i>Post-Impressionist and Futurist Exhibition</i><span>, Doré Galleries, London, October 1913 (4); </span><i>Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Camille Pissarro, 1830-1903</i><span>, Leicester Galleries, London, May 1920 (71); </span><i>Centenaire de la Naissance de Camille Pissarro</i><span>, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, February-March 1930 (63); </span><i>Oil Paintings by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)</i><span>, Tate Gallery, June-October 1931 (5); Birmingham City Art Gallery, October-November 1931 (5); Castle Museum, Nottingham, November-December 1931; War Memorial Art Gallery, Stockport, January 1932 (27); Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, February-March 1932 (25); Bootle Public Museum, April-May 1932 (26); Leeds City Art Gallery, July 1932 (20); Northampton Art Gallery, August-September 1932 (13); Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, September 1932 (13); Rochdale Art Gallery, October-November 1932; </span><i>C. Pissarro</i><span>, Stafford Gallery, London, May-June 1939 (19)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Ludovic Rodo Pissarro and Lionello Venturi, </span><i>Camille Pissarro: son Art - son Oeuvre</i><span> (Paris 1939), No.615. Vol.1, p.168, repr. Vol.2, pl.127; John Rewald (ed.), </span><i>Camille Pissarro: Letters to his son Lucien</i><span> (London 1943), pp.22, 38; John Rewald, </span><i>Camille Pissarro</i><span> (London 1963), p.134, repr. p.135 in colour</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>Studio</i><span>, XCIX, 1930, p.417 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Pissarro first became interested in scenes of rural markets in 1881, while living at Pontoise. Then on 20 February 1883 he wrote to his son Lucien from Osny, near Pontoise: 'I do not budge from here, I work as much as I can on the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a>. I have already begun and am at work on my picture of </span><i>The Market</i><span> which I have changed completely'. On 22 July 1883, he added: 'I haven't done much work outdoors this season, the weather was unfavourable, and I am obsessed with a desire to paint figures which are difficult to compose with. I have made some small sketches; when I have revolved the problem in my mind, I shall get to work. I had Nini pose as a butcher's girl at the Place du Grand Martoy; the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> will have, I hope, a certain naive freshness. The background, that's the difficulty.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>X-ray <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> confirm that some changes were made in the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. The woman on the right has been completely repainted and was originally in profile bending over to the left in an attitude which echoed that of the central figure. The only other marked difference, however, is that the foreground figure had an older head: this was perhaps painted from Mme Pissarro, the artist's wife. As Pissarro said, the model for the final figure was his niece Nini (Mlle Eugénie Estruc), of whom he also painted several <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a>. The background was probably based mainly on studies of the market at Pontoise. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.612-13, reproduced p.612</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture basket butcher cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents crowd domestic Estruc, Eugenie food and drink France groups individuals: female market meat named individuals objects people places Pontoise portraits public and municipal shopping trading and commercial vessels and containers woman work and occupations