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This fall, the Kunstmuseum Basel is dedicating a vast exhibition of more than 180 works to Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) entitled “L’Atelier de la Modernité”, his first retrospective in Switzerland in over 60 years.
Patriarch of the Impressionists, free thinker and revealer of talents, friend of and mentor to his contemporaries, Pissarro is too often relegated to the background of art history.
Born in the West Indies in the Danish colony of «Charlotte Amélie», now the «United States Virgin Islands», Pissarro was the eldest son of a family of Jewish merchants settled on the Island of Saint Thomas.
His father was of Portuguese origin but born in Bordeaux and his mother was Creole. The synagogue initially refused to recognize their union because they were aunt and nephew by marriage. Their union would not be official until seven years later.
At the age of twelve, Pissarro left for France to study in Sanary near Paris where his talents as a designer were encouraged. However, he returned to work in the family business but very quickly this bourgeois life did not suit him. He decides to leave for Caracas and this trip with his Danish painter friend Fritz Melbye will mark a definitive turning point in his life.
The Gardener
Camille Pissarro 1899
Oil on canvas
92.5 x 65 cm
Creditline:
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, erworben 1901, Tausch 1937, Leihgabe 1962 Freunde der Staatsgalerie Photo Credit:
© Staatsgalerie Stuttgart