The Nap, Peasant Woman Lying in the Grass, Pontoise

A young farm worker lies stretched across fresh-cut hay at midday, scarf pulled over her brow, eyes almost closed, her rake still by her hand. Pissarro painted this perfect moment of rest at Pontoise in 1882.

The story behind the painting

Pissarro painted The Nap at Pontoise in 1882. With three similar works, it marks a turning point in his art, from pure landscape painting toward the depiction of figures. It is signed at lower left, C. Pissarro 82. On 30 May 1882 the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris acquired it directly from the painter, and it stayed there until 1899. It then passed through Bernheim-Jeune and Léon Morot to the Amsterdam dealer E. J. van Wisselingh, spent 1935 to 1938 with M. H. Stevenson Southam in Ottawa, and returned to van Wisselingh until 1940.

What to look for

The young peasant woman lies in freshly mown, fragrant hay. Her body forms a diagonal across the picture, dividing it into two zones. A bright horizontal path separates the cultivated meadow from wild growth, with bushes and trees behind. Before machines, meadows were cut by hand with a scythe, then the grass was spread with a wooden rake to dry faster; her rake is visible by her right hand. She has pulled her scarf over her forehead against the high noon sun and rests completely relaxed, eyes nearly closed. No other person, animal or disturbing detail breaks the calm.

Meaning and intent

The fully relaxed human body, in perfect rest, is the real subject. Pissarro always painted his farm workers in simple, unfashionable clothes, without the erotic overtones of eighteenth-century pastoral painting. He chose his young women models for their plain beauty and their determined, happy character, not to please a city audience. That choice contrasted strongly with the prejudices of his time about rural life. Here labour is present only through the rake and the cut hay; what Pissarro shows is the quiet dignity of a worker taking a well-earned pause in the heat of the day.

Legacy

The painting's later history is darker. It was probably held privately from 1940 to 1950, then belonged to the lawyer Hugo Oelze from 1950 until his death in 1967. After 1933, many mostly Jewish owners were forced to sell their art far below its value; Oelze, who had settled in Amsterdam and helped the Nazis assess confiscated works there, was among those who bought cheaply between 1933 and 1945. From his estate the work entered the Kunsthalle Bremen on 10 April 1967, and in 2014 to 2015 it featured in the museum's exhibition on three Bremen collectors and the paths of their paintings under National Socialism.