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| Artist | Pissarro, Lucien (French painter, printmaker, and typographical designer, 1863-1944, active in England) |
| Title | Portrait of Esther |
| Date | 1893 (dated) |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 40.3 x 38.5 cm |
| Inscription | front lr (monogram) 'LP 1893' |
| Description | Painted a year after their marriage, this portrait is of Pissarro's wife, Esther Benusan. In the background is a William Morris tapestry, which unites Esther's head with a mosaic-like pattern. The painting is known originally to have been a head and shoulders study, but it was cut down in the twentieth century after the canvas was damaged. |
| Subject | portrait (Pissarro, Esther) |
| Collection | Ferens Art Gallery, Hull |
| Current accession number | 765 |
| Acquisition details | Purchased from Spinks, London, with the aid of a grant from the National Art-Collections Fund 1989. |
| Provenance | Pissarro family. |
| Principal exhibitions | The Guildhall, 1900, cat. no. 78; Franco-British Exhibition, Wembley, 1908, cat. no. 393; Lucien Pissarro, Arts Council, 1969, cat. no. 12; Annual Exhibition, Spinks and Son, 1989, cat. no. 1; Eye to Eye: The Ferens' Portraits, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1989-90; Impressionism in Britain, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1995, cat. no. 176; Family, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1996; Camille Pissarro and his Descendants, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, 2000, cat. no. 80; From Steer to Spencer, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 2000. |
| Principal publications | The Jewish Chronicle, 18 January 1963; Meadmore, W. S., Lucien Pissarro, London, 1962, p. 53; A Catalogue of the Paintings of Lucien Pissarro, London, 1983, pp. 7, 66, no. 71; National Art-Collections Fund Review, 1990, p. 178; McConkey, K., Impressionism in Britain, New Haven and London, 1995, cat. no. 76; Camille Pissarro and his Descendants, Fort Lauderdale, 2000, no. 8, p. 114. |
| Notes | This picture appears in a photograph of Lucien Pissarro dated 1894 which is now at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The William Morris tapestry shown at the back of the painting is now in a private collection in Essex. Lucien Pissarro was taught to paint by his father Camille (1831-1903). Lucien links the French Impressionists with the later generation of English Impressionists. In France he had close contact with Cezanne (1839-1900) and George Seurat (1859-91), later taking up the pontilist style associated with the latter artist. |
| Rights status | Ferens Art Gallery, Hull |
| Author | Dr Ruth Stewart |
