In the 1860s, Camille Pissarro began visiting the farm estate of Ludovic Piette (French, 1826–1877), a close friend and fellow painter, located at Montfoucault on the Mayenne River in eastern Brittany. Pissarro arrived at the farm in the fall of 1874, following the first Impressionist exhibition, hoping to focus on images of “the true countryside.” Along with Farm at Montfoucault, he completed numerous compositions of women engaged in their daily routines there. However, the artist was still struggling to develop his style of Impressionism. In a letter to French writer and critic Théodore Duret (1838–1927), Pissarro wrote, “I haven’t worked badly here. I have been tackling figures and animals. I have several genre pictures. I am rather chary [hesitant] about going in for a branch of art in which first-rate artists have so distinguished themselves. It is a very bold thing to do, and I am afraid of making a complete failure of it.”

Label from Humble and Human: An Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., February 2–May 26, 2019