Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)

A lovely letter discussing his work and the stir caused by the presentation of the Caillebotte bequest at the Musée du Luxembourg. 74344

He announces Dario [de REGOYOS]’s departure for San Sebastián: ‘matters of interest are calling him back to his homeland. His exhibition is rather meagre; he has only four major paintings, but they were done ten years ago, in black and with a palette knife; there is one fairly large recent one which is rather nice, and then two or three small pieces and a quantity of sketches in pencil or colour, taken from his little albums. As I told him, it is not enough to attract the attention of art lovers; it is astonishing how little young artists produce!! Do you remember that we had no shortage of them when we decided overnight to put on an exhibition!...... Durand [DURAND-RUEL] also told me, ‘I was expecting better’…... Damn! I thought to myself, ‘Me too.’ All last week and this week the press has been covering our paintings at the Luxembourg..... regarding the protest by members of the Institute against our presence at the Museum. Some are outraged that such daubs should be displayed alongside the masterpieces of Guillemet, Gérôme, and so on and so forth; others, and the serious newspapers, say they’re jealous because we’re selling, and so on and so forth…. It makes my head spin! [...] Durand is delighted with this publicity... I haven’t yet had a moment to go and see the Luxembourg and see how badly it’s been set up’... He’s had diarrhoea, but is looking after himself... The work is going well, but ‘today I haven’t managed a single painting, neither in sunshine, nor in grey weather, nor in the rain, [...] it’s now eleven o’clock and still no painting..... Yesterday I worked flat out in the rain and in the sunshine this afternoon’...