- Person
- Camille Pissarro
- Lived
- 1830–1903
- Field
- Impressionist painting
- From
- Danish-French
The story
Camille Pissarro's eldest son, Lucien, born in 1863, trained as a painter under his father and later became a printmaker, wood engraver and book designer. In 1890 he settled permanently in London. For roughly two decades, until Camille's death in 1903, father and son wrote to each other constantly, discussing painting, printmaking, money, politics, family news and the art world of Paris.
The letters are full of practical advice about colour, light and drawing, frank opinions on other artists, and reflections on how to stay true to one's own sensations. In one, written on 1 March 1884, Pissarro described the new family house at Éragny-sur-Epte as superb, with a garden and meadows. Later letters followed in detail the conversion of the barn there into a studio. They show an artist who never stopped learning, encouraging his son while admitting his own doubts and struggles.
The art historian John Rewald, working with Lucien, edited a selection that was published in English in New York in 1943 and in London in 1944 as Letters to His Son Lucien, and in French in 1950. A revised edition followed in 1972. Between 1980 and 1991 the scholar Janine Bailly-Herzberg published Pissarro's wider correspondence in five volumes, making his wider correspondence available to researchers.
Lucien himself described his father as a splendid teacher who never imposed his personality on his pupil, and the letters bear that out. Pissarro taught by example, by encouragement and by explaining his own working methods, the same generous approach that led Paul Cézanne to call him a father and Mary Cassatt to say he could have taught the stones to draw correctly.
Together the letters form one of the richest first-hand accounts of artistic life in late nineteenth-century France. They remain a key source for historians, and students and painters still read them for the advice of one of Impressionism's great teachers.
Why it matters
The letters let later generations learn directly from one of Impressionism's great teachers, in his own words, and remain a key source for scholars.
About Camille Pissarro
Caribbean-born Jewish painter, the ‘dean’ of Impressionism, the only artist in all eight Impressionist exhibitions and a mentor to Cézanne, Gauguin and others.
More about Camille Pissarro
- Camille Pissarro began again after losing 1,500 paintingsWhen Camille Pissarro returned from England after the Franco-Prussian War, only about 40 of the 1,500 paintings he had left behind survived. He started again.
- Camille Pissarro painted Paris from his windowUnable to paint outdoors because of an eye infection, Camille Pissarro painted from hotel windows, creating his celebrated 1897 views of the Boulevard Montmartre.
- Camille Pissarro drafted the Impressionists' charterIn 1873 Camille Pissarro helped create the artists' cooperative whose 1874 show launched Impressionism, and he drafted the group's first charter.
- In London Pissarro studied Constable and TurnerAs a refugee in London in 1870–71, Camille Pissarro painted the city's suburbs, studied Constable and Turner with Monet, and met the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.
- Camille Pissarro was a pioneering Impressionist printmakerCamille Pissarro experimented with etching, lithography, woodcut and monotype, becoming one of the most dedicated printmakers among the Impressionists.
- Camille Pissarro stood up for Alfred DreyfusCamille Pissarro was convinced of Alfred Dreyfus's innocence by 1897 and in 1898 added his name to the intellectuals' petition backing Émile Zola.
Sources
- Camille Pissarro Wikipedia
- Lucien Pissarro Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.