- Person
- Camille Pissarro
- Lived
- 1830–1903
- Field
- Impressionist painting
- From
- Danish-French
The story
In 1894 Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, was falsely convicted of treason. The affair split France for more than a decade and unleashed a wave of antisemitism, including among some of Camille Pissarro's own artist friends.
Pissarro was the only Jewish artist in the core Impressionist circle. Born into a Jewish family on Saint Thomas, he was assimilated and not religious, but he had already met prejudice within the art world: in 1882 Renoir had objected to exhibiting alongside him, and in 1892 Renoir's brother insulted him with antisemitic remarks. Pissarro chose to ignore the insults for the sake of the group. When the Dreyfus Affair came, however, he took a clear stand.
In September 1896 he wrote to thank and encourage Bernard Lazare, a young critic who had published a pamphlet on antisemitism and was among the first to argue that Dreyfus was innocent. By November 1897 Pissarro was himself convinced of Dreyfus's innocence. In January 1898, after a closed military court acquitted Major Esterhazy, Émile Zola published his open letter J'Accuse in Georges Clemenceau's newspaper L'Aurore, accusing the army of framing Dreyfus. Within days Pissarro asked to have his name added to the petition of intellectuals calling for the case to be reviewed. About two months later, after Zola had been convicted of libel, Pissarro agreed to serve on a committee to honour him with a medal.
His stand cost him old friendships. Degas, who had become strongly antisemitic, broke with him that January, and both Degas and Renoir refused to greet him in the street. Claude Monet, by contrast, signed the petition supporting Dreyfus at once; he remained Pissarro's friend and had helped him buy his house at Éragny a few years earlier.
Pissarro died in 1903, three years before Dreyfus was finally cleared and reinstated in the army in 1906. He did not live to see the outcome, but he had placed his name and reputation on the side of justice when it mattered.
Why it matters
Pissarro lent his name and reputation to the fight for justice for Dreyfus, at a time when doing so carried a real personal cost.
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.
- Camille Pissarro's letters to his son became an art classicCamille Pissarro's letters to his son Lucien, published in English in 1943, remain a key source on how the Impressionists thought and worked.
- 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.
Sources
- Camille Pissarro Protests Alfred Dreyfus' Conviction Shapell Manuscript Foundation
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