Camille Pissarro

Porteuses de Fagots Delteil 153, Leymarie 174 lithograph, 1896, on medium-weight cream laid paper, with the full Van Gelder Zonen (including the figure of fortune) watermark, a very fine impression of the only known state, numbered, "n° 4", titled and annotated "Porteuses de fagots (tirage à part de Grave)" in pencil by the artist (?), with full margins, with slight undulations in the image due to printing, a deckle edge below, slight overall light-staining, some foxing, mostly well away from the image, extreme sheet edges somewhat discoloured, otherwise in very good condition   P. 228x300 mm., S. 450x560 mm.

Provenance: descendants of the artist's family

Pissarro was the most committed of the Impressionists to the socialist and anarchist movements of his time, and in the ongoing debate on art "for art's sake" and "social art" he exclaimed:

"Je me suis demandé ce qu'un homme de lettres entendait par art anarchiste? ... Y a-t-il un art anarchiste? ... Tous les arts sont anarchistes quand c'est beau et bien!"* 

The present impression was published to support Jean Grave's anarchist journal, Les Temps Nouveaux, and is one of the rare numbered impressions of this fine print.  (NB: There were several proof impressions, a so-called "deluxe" edition of 20, and a numbered edition of  24.  We have not seen such an impression on the market in many years.)

*  ["I've asked myself what a man of letters understands by anarchist art? ... Is there an anarchist art? ... All arts are anarchist when it's beautiful and fine!"] 
  Letter to Octave Mirbeau (Eragny, 30 September 1892), in Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Correspondance de Camille Pissarro, 1988, Tome 3, page 261.