Mme Pissarro sewing beside a Window Frame:black clear colours set off against

clear colours set off against a dark background: the foliage of the trees was once picked out with gold

and a gondola just off the Palazzo Flangini-Fini behind them

exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856

Mademoiselle Claus

All three are concerned with the history of early man

Mme Pissarro sewing beside a Window Frame:black clear colours set off againstThis oil, painted in 1878 shortly after the death of Minette and before the birth of Ludovic Rodo, shows Mme Pissarro sewing in front of a window in their home at Pontoise. She is absorbed in her task, calm and detached. Pissarro has concentrated on her face and the curling ironwork of the balcony, in heavily worked strokes of gentle colours, to create a mood of intimacy and hard work.