Woman in the Kitchen Garden c. 1880

Camille Pissarro made this etching, titled "Woman in the Kitchen Garden," in France, most likely between 1880 and 1900. Pissarro was deeply interested in representing the lives of rural laborers, often in the French countryside. Notice how the figure of the woman is integrated within the landscape, marked only by the slightest suggestion of a bonnet, a typical head covering for working-class women. How might we interpret the woman’s connection to the earth, the natural world? As an essential, almost elemental, aspect of labor? As a Jewish man in France, Pissarro was always something of an outsider. Perhaps his representations of women resonate with his own position in society. He found a commonality with those historically excluded and dedicated his artistic practice to providing visibility to those living on the margins. Though rendered simply, the emotional weight of the woman’s labor, her very existence, is palpable here.