Footnotes

Provenance
Toni & Roland Gartner, Austin, Texas.
Estate of the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, October 2020.

Une Paysanne is an exquisite example of Edward Emerson Simmons' advanced abilities as a plain-air figure painter that earned him praise at the Paris Salons. The present work is also a beautiful lens into the lives of the peasants he observed in Concarneau, France. From 1881 to 1886, Simmons lived in Concarneau on the Breton coast where the present work was painted in 1882, only to be broken up by a several months long trip to Elche, Spain. Simmons made his studio in an old wheat loft and painted the peasants of the region who accepted his invitation to model for him in exchange for a few cents. In Simmons autobiography, he described being in Concarneau and in Elche as having "suddenly plunged back into the Middle Ages." (From Seven to Seventy: Memories of a Painter and a Yankee, New York, 1922, p. 141) The young country peasant girl depicted in the present work, possibly identified as Louise by the inscription on the reverse, is a characteristic image of the peasants of Concarneau. Simmons portrays her with a humble expression and direct gaze as she holds a clay jug and sits among a pile of wheat. Her bright red shawl and pure white cap appear in stark contrast to her dimly lit surroundings. Simmons best described his peasant subjects native dress as "picturesque enough...Underneath this white coif [headdress], which is always beautifully laundered and starched, is a tight cap which holds the hair, and this, I think is seldom removed. The remainder of the costume (which makes them look like Noah's Ark women) is a heavy woolen skirt and a double-breasted blouse. This is held together by a huge shawl pin of brass, and under no circumstances can they be persuaded to use buttons. Of course there are stockings and sabots." (From Seven to Seventy: Memories of a Painter and a Yankee, New York, 1922, pp. 141-42)