Young Peasant Girls Resting in the Fields near Pontoise

This 1882 National Gallery of Art painting shows young peasant women resting in fields near Pontoise — a subject that reflects Pissarro's sustained engagement with rural labour and the lives of agricultural workers. Unlike the idealizing Barbizon tradition that preceded him, Pissarro showed peasant life without sentimentality or idealization — the women are simply resting between tasks, their figures solid and particular rather than symbolic. His anarchist-humanist sympathy with rural workers gave these subjects a seriousness unusual among the Impressionists, who more typically focused on bourgeois leisure.

The figures are placed in a sunny field, the high horizon giving maximum space to the sky. Pissarro uses his early 1880s technique — varied, directional brushwork that renders grass texture, sky, and the women's dresses in different stroke patterns. The figures have a solidity and weight unusual in Impressionist figurework.