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Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), A Peaceful Sunday in the Woods (Repos du Dimanche dans le Bois), etching, aquatint and drypoint, 1891, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed by the artist “2e etat No.2 repos dans le bois” lower left. Reference: Delteil 99, third state (of three, but see discussion below). In good condition apart from a printer’s crease upper center (soiling as befits an artist’s proof, and a blue crayon mark verso); trimmed (presumably by the artist) just outside of the plate mark at right and left, with margins top and bottom. Printed on a brown laid paper, in a brownish/black ink. 6 3/4 x 11 3/8, the sheet 8 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches.
A fine atmospheric impression; in this impression a substantial layer of plate tone has been left on the plate, making it a night or late afternoon scene.
A spendid example of Pissarro’s impressionist aesthetic, as well as his idiosyncratic and personal approach to printmaking.
Only a few impressions of the first state are known, and only one impression of a second state in which some shading lines were added. A few impressions are known of a recently discovered intermediate state (2a), in which a few slanting lines were added below the peasant woman at the right. The third state (here referred to by Pissarro as a second state) is known in about 10 impressions. Each of these impressions is called 2e by the artist, and numbered. (A posthumous edition was printed in 18 proofs, each stamped and numbered); the perforated zinc plate was given to the New York Public Library.
