Of course, in order to best analyze which, between sensation libre and anarchism, dominates in Pissarro’s marketplaces, we must first clarify what exactly is meant by the term “anarchism” and why the peasant plays such a key role in the ideals of the movement. As the art historian Ralph Shikes states in his essay "Pissarro’s political philosophy and his art", the anarchism of the late nineteenth century can essentially be defined as a utopian ideal where all need for a governing body is eliminated and replaced by a Federalist system of volunteer, mutualist associations (Shikes, 36). The backbone of this system - which today might be called socialism - is the land-owning peasants, the rural laborers who produce their own food and thus are entirely self-sufficient. They were independent of any government or authority. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, was essentially seen almost as a leech, the symbol of a corrupt and unequal capitalist society that must be eliminated. This philosophy appealed to many late nineteenth century artists, writers and poets whose work departed from the conventions of academic styles. For example, Gustave Kahn, Stephen Mallarmé, Octave Mirbeau, to name a few, were very attracted to this anarchist school of thought.
Pissarro was very much one of these men. From the incipient stages of his artistic career, Pissarro’s sympathy had always extended to the more humble members of society. In St Thomas, where he was born in 1830, and in Venezuela, he painted many figure drawings of agricultural workers: the poorer menial workers, for example the mestizos (the Indians and Blacks) of Venezuela. (Shikes, 35) As is visible in his Sheet of studies of watercarriers dating from 1852, he drew many sketches of these workers performing everyday tasks, such as washing clothes and carrying water jugs. These drawings indeed, as states Shikes, “reflected a fundamental sympathy with those whose lives were controlled by those who sat for his portraits” (35); in other words, even in his early youth, Pissarro truly empathized with the poorer members of society. Later, when he left St Thomas and Venezuela for Paris, he was very much struck by the similarly polarized French society, one end of which lived a life of complete luxury and extravagance, and the other a life of misery and subordination. P. J. Proudhon, one of the leading advocates of anarchism in the France of the 1850s and 1860s, who wrote in his book La Justice that agriculture was predominant since it offered independence and freedom to all those who pursued it, proved to be a huge influence on Pissarro. Indeed, Pissarro read, discussed and praised much of Proudhon’s work, writing to his son Lucien how “Proudon, in La Justice, says that the Love of the earth is linked to the Revolution, and consequently to the artistic ideal.” (qtd Shikes, 36). In other letters, he even “indicated that Proudhon was his political guide” (Shikes, 40). Thus, from his very youth, Pissarro committed himself to the anarchist philosophy, a commitment he would uphold throughout his entire life. He never ceased to express what Shikes and Harper, another art historian, call in their essay entitled "Pissarro’s Anarchism" his “passionate hatred of injustice and of the society in which he lived, his “deep sympathy for those whom he regarded as the victims of that society”, and his “vague dream of a world he believed would eventually materialize out of the destructive chaos that surrounded him” (Shikes & Harper, 230). In other words, Pissarro truly was an egalitarian and a social optimist who believed in the betterment of mankind through a peaceful and harmonious agrarian society, without any need for a government or social classes. All that was necessary, to him, was a society of peasants living in peaceful harmony.