|
Date: |
|
Description: | Signed: yes Description: Camille Pissarro, the only member of the Impressionists to exhibit in all the group's exhibitions (1874-86), entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1855. Here he fell under the spell of Corot, who for a time he called his master. Later at the Académie Suisse he met Monet, who would remain a life long friend. During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the invading army overran Pissarro's home at Louveciennes and, by his own account, 1,200 of his paintings, drawings and sketches were destroyed. He escaped to England, however, where he joined Monet in London. For both artists this was a profitable experience bringing them into contact with the works of John Constable and J. M. W. Turner. On his return to France in 1872, Pissarro settled at Pontoise where he became a friend and mentor to Paul Cézanne. Later he also became friends with Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. The Southampton painting, View from the Versailles Road, Louveciennes, made in 1870, is a rare survival of the artist's early work. The picture is modest in scale and was almost certainly painted out of doors. The view was taken from a site favoured by Corot, and his influence is evident in the atmospheric treatment of the distant landscape. However, Pissarro's innovations in style are apparent in the almost photographic crop of the composition, which cuts the house on the left unevenly and the bold palette used to describe the foreground. In addition to this, was his expressive and free application of paint, particularly in the rendering of the sky and the two figures in the foreground which are described with a fully developed Impressionist technique (note particularly the tricolour of the woman's sash bow). Furthermore, a sense of movement suggestive of flickering light is created throughout the scene with rapid blurring brush strokes. | Subjects: | France); figure landscape; place (Louvenciennes | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Pissarro, Camille (French painter and printmaker, 1831-1903) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8402... | Go to resource |
|
|