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PISSARRO IN SPAIN — THIS SUMMER–IT’S PISSARRO!

Published February 14, 2013 Art 1 Comment
Tags: 1896, Dieppe, Eragny, Impressionist, landscape, Le Havre, London, Louveciennes, Madrid, Orchard.Museo Thyssen, Paris, Pissarro, places, Pontoise, Rouen, Spain, Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Orchard at Éragny, 1896, Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, PDR 1134

AN EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITION IS OPENING IN JUNE IN MADRID!! Perhaps the gorgeous painting shown above will be among those in the exhibition at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Here’s the full story from their superb English website (http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/home)

Pissarro

From 04 June to 15 September 2013

In the summer of 2013 the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza will be presenting the first monographic exhibition in Spain on the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). A key figure within Impressionism (he wrote the movement’s foundational letter and was the only one of its artists to take part in all eight Impressionist exhibitions from 1874 to 1886), Pissarro was nonetheless eclipsed by the enormous popularity of his friends and colleagues, in particular Claude Monet. The exhibition includes more than 70 works with the aim of restoring Pissarro’s reputation and presenting him as one of the great pioneers of modern art. Landscape, the genre that prevailed in his output, will be the principal focus of this exhibition, which offers a chronologically structured tour of the places where the artist lived and painted: Louveciennes, Pontoise and Éragny, as well as cities such as Paris, London, Rouen, Dieppe and Le Havre. While Pissarro is traditionally associated with the rural world, to which he devoted more than three decades of his career, at the end of his life he shifted his attention to the city and his late output is dominated by urban views. Curated by Guillermo Solana, this exhibition will subsequently be shown at the CaixaForum, Barcelona.

THE TIMING IS EXCELLENT TO SEE PISSARRO AND THE PORTS IN LE HAVRE, FRANCE AND PISSARRO IN MADRID, SPAIN THIS SUMMER.

PISSARRO’S PLACES — BOLD EXPERIMENT!!

Published February 9, 2013 Art 2 Comments
Tags: 1873, Art Book Annex, Camille Pissarro, Clark Art Institute, experiment, Factory, family photos, historic postcards, Ingram Content Group, Oise, PDR 300, photographs, Pissarro's Places, Pontoise, Print on Demand, reproductions, traditional publishers

How will this painting* look in PISSARRO’S PLACES?

We’re not sure…..Here’s why….

Camille Pissarro constantly pushed the limits of painting and embraced most things modern (except the Eiffel Tower). So I think he would approve of this.

PISSARRO’S PLACES will be the first book with fine art reproductions to be produced by the digital “PRINT ON DEMAND” production technique. (Based on checks with industry executives) It includes:

35 reproductions of Pissarro paintings

46 current photographs of the places he painted

29 historic postcards

Several family photographs and a few historic photos of Paris

Traditional publishers would not take on this 150-page book because it might not be profitable in today’s business environment. Self-publishing is the solution—for many authors in all categories.

My publisher is Art Book Annex—that’s right, my blog is publishing my book in print! Thankfully, my public relations background left me with decades of experience working with editors, designers and printers. PISSARRO’S PLACES has been professionally edited and professionally designed.

The printing will be done by Lightning Source, a company of Ingram Content Group, the world’s largest and most trusted distributor of physical and digital content. They provide books, music and media content to over 38,000 retailers, libraries, schools and distribution partners in 195 countries and work with more than 25,000 publishers.

Lightning Source provides digital print production, also called “Print on Demand,” which means that using the computer files I supply to them, they can print any number of copies as they are needed—even just one copy.

The risk lies in the quality of the reproductions. This new technique is nothing like the complicated printing used for exhibition catalogues, and the paper will not be heavy and shiny. But I’ve examined their sample books with photography and illustrations, and I’ve consulted with design and printing experts. We believe it will work.

Stay tuned, and hear the results when I get the first proof!!

*This beautiful painting is Factory on the Banks of the Oise, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, painted by Pissarro in 1873. It can be seen at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, PA. The catalogue raisonne number is PDR 300. It will be in the chapter on Pontoise in PISSARRO’S PLACES.

Why Did Pissarro Do This?

Published January 18, 2013 Art 1 Comment
Tags: 1867, Durand-Ruel, Guggenheim Museum, Impressionism, Jean-Baptiste Faure, l'Hermitage, Pissarro, Pontoise

The Hills at l’Hermitage, Pointoise, c. 1867, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

PDR 121

Always pushing the edge of creativity and inventiveness, Pissarro painted The Hills at L’Hermitage, Pontoise in 1867, seven years before the first Impressionist Exhibition. But it demonstrates all the elements of Impressionism—the light palette, a scene of everyday life, and depiction of the weather.

It is the largest painting ever made by Pissarro. Paul Durand-Ruel, his agent, bought the painting in March 1873 and sold it the same day to Jean-Baptiste Faure, a famous operatic baritone who sang in Paris and London.

The people in Pissarro’s paintings are integral to its composition, but they are not there to tell a story. In fact, they often raise questions that have no answers. In this painting, a woman and little girl are talking to another woman. Most scholars agree that they are in fact Julie, the painter’s wife, and his daughter Minette. They are talking to a woman whose back is towards us, but we can see from her arms clasped behind her back that she has dark skin. This is especially noticeable because the skin of Julie and Minette are very light, almost pink.

Who is this dark-skinned woman? Is she an African or a gypsy woman? What is the conversation between these two women from obviously different backgrounds? As provocative as this question may be, the women are just two small elements in the painting. The difference in skin-color is so subtle that it goes unnoticed by many viewers. When you remember that everything in a painting is due to the artist’s choice, you wonder why Pissarro raised this unanswerable question.

Pontoise in the Snow as Pissarro Saw It

Published January 3, 2013 Art 1 Comment
Tags: 1873, Camille Pissarro, Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Pissarro's Places, Pissarro: Critical Catalogue, Pontoise, Rue de Gisors, snow

Rue de Gisors, Effect of Snow, Pontoise, 1873

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA PDR* 284

The overnight snowfall was still evident as Pissarro set up his easel on the side of the road. Just to the right of the two-wheeled cart, we can easily see the corner of the street where Pissarro lived.

The people of the village are busy with their daily errands as a woman sweeps snow off the sidewalk. Pissarro gives us an accurate sense of the gentle downward slope of the road with the decreasing levels of the rooftops. Even though the dominant colors of the painting are warm pinks and mauves, the cold crispness of the air suggested by the white snow on the roofs is intense.

This scene has hardly changed at all since Pissarro painted it. The pink building now has three stories, but the smaller buildings on that side are still the same and the tall angled roof is still there although it does not seem nearly as high as he portrayed it.

This painting is one of 30 featured in the upcoming book,

PISSARRO’S PLACES.

*PDR refers to the number assigned to this painting in Pissarro:Critical Catalogue by Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Shollaerts (2005).

PISSARRO IN THE NEW BARNES MUSEUM IN PHILADELPHIA!

Published July 9, 2012 Art Leave a Comment
Tags: 1876, Camille Pissarro, Dr. Alfred C. Barnes, Hermitage, Impressionism, Paris, pharmaceutical industry, Philadelphia, Pontoise, symmetrical, William Glackens

The Garden de Maubuisson, Pontoise, Sunshine 1876

Philadelphia (PA) The Barnes Foundation PDR 440

Tucked in among the largest collection of Renoirs in the world andkeeping company with an enormous group of Cezannes is one painting by Camille Pissarro. Dr. Alfred C. Barnes, a medical doctor who made his fortune in the pharmaceutical industry, became interested in collecting the art of his time. According to the film at the Barnes Foundation, he sent his good friend and prominent Philadelphia artist (member of “The Eight”), William Glackens to Paris with $20,000 to buy paintings to begin his collection. This Pissarro was one of the 20 paintings that Glackens broughtback.

Camille Pissarro painted this garden scene in the Hermitage neighborhood of Pontoise in 1876. Even today, it seems every home in the Hermitage has its own kitchen garden or orchard stretching down the hill behind the house. It looks like Pissarro set up his easel at the bottom of the hill and allowed the roofs of the houses to describe the hill’s steep incline. The colors in the painting are a textbook example of Impressionism. The lush greens of the vegetable plots in the foreground transition to yellow green of the leaves and then to the rich turquoise of the sky. The peachy pathways reflect the red roofs on the hill.

At first glance, the composition seems to be perfectly symmetrical—something Pissarro rarely did. (It’s a mistake to say never about anything involving Pissarro since he frequently surprises you.)

The vertical path leads us to the focal point, an upright stone with two large stones at its base. A womanin a white hat stands to the side. Rows of small trees (probably apple or pear trees) on each side lead straight back to the upright object and they are flanked by two rectangular green patches. But wait! If this is truly symmetrical, wouldn’t the focal point be in the center of the canvas? In fact, it is just to the left of center, creating an interesting tension and lifting the composition out of the ordinary.

Now you can see this gorgeous Pissarro in the Barnes Foundation collection. But if you go, be aware that the Barnes REQUIRES RESERVATIONS –available by phone or online. Check their website for full information (click on the link above).

The Definition of Impressionism

Published March 16, 2012 Art 1 Comment
Tags: en plein air, factories, Impressionism, Oise River, Pissarro, Pontoise, reflections

Factory on the Banks of the Oise, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône

1873 Williamstown (Mass) Clark Art Institute

PDR 300

One warm spring day, Pissarro took his easel to the banks of the Oise River and made a painting that is archetypical of the Impressionist movement. It contains nearly all of the characteristics commonly associated with the Impressionist style: the lavish portrayal of sunlight; the consciousness of the changing weather as grey clouds crowd the intense blue sky; the presence of modernity in the new factories lining the bank of the Oise River; and the immediacy of the scene which bespeaks en plein air painting.

The painting itself has a classic composition divided almost equally between the sky and the earth with the river dwindling away on the right side. The water, still as a mirror, reflects the smokestacks and buildings on the other side and connects them with the freshness of the spring flowers in the right foreground. The factory, a distillery, had just been completed in 1872. The white building with the small smokestack is still there along with a few of the small buildings.

A Puzzle to Mid-Nineteenth Century Eyes…Still Puzzling Now

Published February 26, 2012 Art Leave a Comment
Tags: Abstract, frost, hoar-frost, Impressionism, mist, Pissarro, Pontoise

Hoar-Frost at Ennery

1873 Musée d’Orsay, Paris PDR 285

One cold winter morning, Pissarro carried his easel directly north of Pontoise to the fields of nearby Ennery. The painting he made there, Hoar-Frost at Ennery, was shown in the first exhibition of the Impressonists at Nadar’s studio in Paris in 1874.

Responses from some of the art critics of the time were extremely harsh. One critic pointed out what was considered one of the most serious mistakes of that era, showing shadows on the ground of trees that are not in the picture. Another proclaimed that the painting had “neither head nor tail, neither top nor bottom, neither front nor back.”

Even to our eyes, the painting is dramatically different from other Impressionist paintings. This is no Sisley landscape with reflections in the river or Monet haystacks. Those are simple to understand. At first glance, this painting seems commonplace with the horizon line two-thirds of the way to the top. But below that is an extremely complex composition. The only familiar reference points are the bare trees and the peasant. Two-thirds of the painting is a patchwork of colors crisscrossed by parallel lines with a dark green anchor near the center. The work could be that of a contemporary abstract artist.

ART BOOK ANNEX

Posts Tagged 'Pontoise'

PISSARRO IN SPAIN — THIS SUMMER–IT’S PISSARRO!

Pissarro

PISSARRO’S PLACES — BOLD EXPERIMENT!!

Why Did Pissarro Do This?

Pontoise in the Snow as Pissarro Saw It

PISSARRO IN THE NEW BARNES MUSEUM IN PHILADELPHIA!

The Definition of Impressionism

A Puzzle to Mid-Nineteenth Century Eyes…Still Puzzling Now

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