Jean-François RAFFAËLLI (Paris, 1850 - 1924) The ragpicker at the edge of the quarries Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. (Small cracks in the sky). 22 x 24 cm Provenance: Manuel de Ayarragaray Garbuno (1840-1908), industrialist and collector, Bilbao. Exhibitions : - 6th Impressionist Exhibition, Paris, 35 Boulevard des Capucines, April 2-May 1, 1881, no. 111 ("Chiffonnier au bord des carrières. Belongs to M. Ayarra de Garay"). - Works of Jean-François Raffaëlli, Paris, 28 bis, avenue de l'Opéra, March 15-April 15, 1884, n° 138 ("Chiffonnier au bord des carrières. Appartient à M. Ayarra de Garay"). Bibliography: - A. Silvestre, Le Monde des arts, in. La Vie moderne, IIIe année, n° 16 (16 April 1881), p. 251. - A. Silvestre, Sixième exposition des artistes indépendants, in L'Estafette, April 11, 1881, p. 3. We join : the original mounting decorated by the artist's hand With this small unpublished oil painting, Raffaëlli once again focuses on his favorite universe, that of the suburbs and the landscapes beyond the "fortifs", near Asnières or Meudon. Far from the luxuriant gardens of the Impressionists, Raffaëlli depicts the simple and often miserable life of the small tradesmen, ragpickers and tinkerers, who populate his paintings and engravings. We find here the muddy road, the dislocated fence, the hut with the collapsed roof while in the distance mills and factory chimneys testify to the metamorphoses of a world still hesitating between the traditional economy of yesterday and the industrialization in progress. An unhitched wagon and a few chickens complete this somewhat desolate picture. In this oil painting, however, the artist is not content to represent a type, the ragpicker, as he knows how to do so well with his grinders, chimney sweepers and other actors of the popular life. It seems, in fact, that a form of staging suggests something else. The character, seen from the back and posted on the left, who has just put down his bag, expresses surprise mixed with discontent. The hands placed on the hips as a sign of disapproval and the face turned towards the center of the image guide our gaze towards what seems to be the cause of his attitude. A car, with its top up, is stopped in front of the house and another car, seen from behind, is parked along the left wall of the building. One wonders, as does the character himself, what Parisian carriages are doing in this remote and muddy place, in the middle of nowhere, in the heart of this inhospitable suburb. Although no source provides proof, it is not forbidden to suggest an answer. It is unlikely that a tryst would take place in such an unromantic place. On the other hand, is it not the discreet and remote place where men of the world, journalists and literati come to settle their differences and wash their honor on the meadow, as was still the custom at the time? The protagonists and witnesses are not visible, but their crews undoubtedly attest to their presence on some field behind the hovel. This staging could lead one to think that Raffaëlli has chosen the anecdote; isn't he rather more subtle than ever in suggesting the meeting of worlds, that of an elegant and frivolous capital where one fights, or pretends to fight, for a thrown glove, an ironic article or a woman's affair, and the hard reality of the small people of the suburbs? With very little, a bare landscape, a few suggestive details, the skillfully rendered attitude of his character and a restricted chromatic range, the painter delivers both the poetry of an endearing world and the state of a complex society that questions it.