ARTISTS AND READERS
Over the years Pissarro lovingly portrayed his children in a large number of paintings and drawings—works of art that mostly remained in the family’s possession. The Pissarro children were as focused and intellectually engaged as their father—several went on to become artists themselves—and he often showed them reading, sketching, or painting, activities in which they were continuously absorbed but also ones that kept them occupied while posing for their father.
Cocotte, who lived with her parents until her marriage in 1908, is shown seated in the Pissarro apartment on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, where they lived beginning in 1899. Her father’s paintings fill the wall behind. The painting is a symphony of reds, pinks, russets, and oranges, with highlights of brilliant green.