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Posted on 6/7/2010 6:11:28 PM
By Donald Fox
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There are many painters whose work I admire. They may represent a vast range of visual experience as expressed stylistically. My short list would contain names like Robert Motherwell, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Giorgio Morandi, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Pablo Picasso. I could easily name dozens more, each one appreciated for specific qualities, but certain painters I return to again and again for new lessons and inspiration. Foremost among these is Pissarro.
Sometimes represented as the old man of Impressionism, since he was older than the majority of painters who are gathered under that banner, I think of him as a painter first and Impressionist by default. Many paintings from his Pontoise period are some of the most majestic achievements in the history of painting, but their bucolic landscape scenes often lead them to be overlooked or underappreciated, especially by those drawn to flashier paintings by Monet and others.
Many paintings by the Impressionists have a sketchy, airy, light-filled quality that typifies the popular understanding of what makes a painting Impressionist (notwithstanding the signature). Monet’s cathedral facades suggest perspective, but the massive stone structure practically dissolves in flickers of light. The same could be said of the paintings of haystacks, poplars, lily ponds, or gardens. However, more than a few of Pissarro’s landscapes of Pontoise are solid creations with carefully designed and composed elements that seem to deny the plein aire execution of them. Space is often flattened, and the natural forms of the landscape suggest more about the underlying geometry than biomorphic representation. These paintings are far from the feathered edges of Renoir.
Pissarro’s work from this period, in my opinion, often has more in common with Cezanne’s structuralism than Impressionism. Considering that the two men knew each other and sometimes painted together, it shouldn’t be surprising that the younger Cezanne might be influenced by the elder master. Cezanne’s formalism may be an extension of Pissarro’s pictorial investigations. These highly structured landscapes, on the other hand, were not the only paintings Pissarro did at that time. He also experimented with the looser style more associated with Impressionism as well as paintings executed in pointillist techniques. This suggests to me an active mind curious about what his friends and colleagues were doing. It also suggests an open-minded inquiry into painting in general, not the provincial, conservative figure as Pissarro is sometimes portrayed.
The modern tendency to label and pigeonhole artists is a disservice to the artist and a handicap to any viewer who attempts to understand art from that perspective. Art is much richer than that. Artists are more complex and inquisitive than they often are represented. Serious painters don’t simply crank out clones of their own work. They keep observing and thinking and rethinking as they continuously express through their creative process.
