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Camille Pissarro’s letters

A rich correspondence bringing together family life, painting, fellow artists and Pissarro’s convictions.

3 letters available

12.01.1885 · uncertain date

Pissarro in Monet: "Times are so hard"

Camille Pissarro. → Claude Monet

Eragny, by Gisors (Eure).

Camille Pissarro explains to Claude Monet that he received his telegram late and that he cannot go to Paris, his son Lucien before himself moving there for his publications of engravings. Most of all, he confides in his serious financial difficulties: the times are so hard that he must limit his expenses, give up meals shared with his friends and sell his paintings at random. Despite this embarrassment, Pissarro hopes to find Monet again as in the past when his situation has improved. This letter gives a very direct testimony of the painter's material precariousness.

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01.12.1884 · uncertain date

Pissarro in Monet: mutual assistance and difficulties between Impressionists

Camille Pissarro → Claude Monet

Pontoise

Camille Pissarro responds to Claude Monet's material difficulties and assures him that he will try to help him despite his own precarious financial situation. He evokes the support received from Gustave Caillebotte and recommends that Monet ask Mr.La Place, patron of the brewery La Grande Pinte, to create a decorated palette. He also advised him to pass this on to Alfred Sisley. The letter bears witness to the concrete solidarity between Impressionist painters and the uncertainty of sales.

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12.06.1883

Pissarro in Monet: concerns about Durand-Ruel and the art market

Camille Pissarro → Claude Monet

Osny, by Pontoise, SW

In this letter addressed to Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro apologizes for having delayed answering and confides his own discouragement in the face of the future. He spoke at length about the worrying situation of their business with Durand-Ruel: difficulties of money, low sales in London as in Paris, Sisley exhibition without result, sending paintings to Boston deemed not useful, and exhibition project in Holland. Pissarro also criticizes how their works are presented to the public, considering that an art still misunderstood should be shown with more care, taste and mystery. The letter shows both the fragility of the impressionist market after the crash and the lucidity of Pissarro on the conditions for the diffusion of their painting.

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