Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)is an impressionist artist. He was over 10 years senior to Monet and other impressionists. They admired him due to his genial personality and not only impressionists but neo-impressionist artists looked to him as a teacher when their art styles were not yet accepted.
He was born on St. Thomas, Danish West Indies and he helped his father who operated a trading firm. But he made up his mind and left for Paris when he was 25. He wanted to study the artistic styles of Courbet、Corot and once studied under Corot.
In 1859 he met Monet and began to pain landscape in bright colors under outdoor natural sun light. In 1885 he adopted Pointillism of neo-impressionists represented by Seurat、Signac and painted landscape and farmers by using the Pointillism technique for a few years.
"Apple Picking" is a work painted during his neo-impressionism period. It provides a structure in which the whole view is boldly looked from an angle so that one can scarcely see the sky and is coupled with the three women. One could assume that he gave a lot of creative thinking to the composition. A clear contrast between the sunlit area and shade is rendered by using bright colors.
Anecdote
This painting was purchased in 1941, 11 years after the foundation of Ohara Museum of Art. The museum had "Inner Court of Maison Rondest, Pontoise" by Pissarro then, which Torajiro Kojima had bought in Europe. "Apple Picking" is a work worth considered one of masterpieces of all Pissarro paintings. The price for the painting an art dealer proposed was 45,000 yen. (Note 1)
It was a time when the museum received only a small number of visitors and the very unsettling air before the outbreak of World War II was prevailing not only in Japan but at the rest of Asia as well. The Ohara Museum of Art was under a very severe financial pressure.
The director, Kiyomi Takeuchi, being very anxious to acquire this painting consulted with Magosaburo and Soichiro Ohara, the father and the son. They agreed to the proposal and twelve paintings that Torajiro Kojima had bought in Europe earlier were exchanged to that.
Note 1: It is equivalent to over 100 million yen of today's value.
Apple Picking
Commentary
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)is an impressionist artist. He was over 10 years senior to Monet and other impressionists. They admired him due to his genial personality and not only impressionists but neo-impressionist artists looked to him as a teacher when their art styles were not yet accepted.
He was born on St. Thomas, Danish West Indies and he helped his father who operated a trading firm. But he made up his mind and left for Paris when he was 25. He wanted to study the artistic styles of Courbet、Corot and once studied under Corot.
In 1859 he met Monet and began to pain landscape in bright colors under outdoor natural sun light. In 1885 he adopted Pointillism of neo-impressionists represented by Seurat、Signac and painted landscape and farmers by using the Pointillism technique for a few years.
"Apple Picking" is a work painted during his neo-impressionism period. It provides a structure in which the whole view is boldly looked from an angle so that one can scarcely see the sky and is coupled with the three women. One could assume that he gave a lot of creative thinking to the composition. A clear contrast between the sunlit area and shade is rendered by using bright colors.
Anecdote
This painting was purchased in 1941, 11 years after the foundation of Ohara Museum of Art. The museum had "Inner Court of Maison Rondest, Pontoise" by Pissarro then, which Torajiro Kojima had bought in Europe. "Apple Picking" is a work worth considered one of masterpieces of all Pissarro paintings. The price for the painting an art dealer proposed was 45,000 yen. (Note 1)
It was a time when the museum received only a small number of visitors and the very unsettling air before the outbreak of World War II was prevailing not only in Japan but at the rest of Asia as well. The Ohara Museum of Art was under a very severe financial pressure.
The director, Kiyomi Takeuchi, being very anxious to acquire this painting consulted with Magosaburo and Soichiro Ohara, the father and the son. They agreed to the proposal and twelve paintings that Torajiro Kojima had bought in Europe earlier were exchanged to that.
Note 1: It is equivalent to over 100 million yen of today's value.
Painting
Apple Picking
Small Table in Evening Dusk
Song of Songs (Le Cantique des Cantiques)
Haystacks
Waterlilies
Cliff of Gréville
Coutyard at the ‘Rondest House’, Pontoise
Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze
Delightful Land (Te Nave Nave Fenua)
All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God’s Love
Wave
Carriage and Pair
Three Dancers in Red Costume
Autumn Sea
Old Horse in the Wasteland
Landscape
Festival of Venis
Hair
Winter Orchard
Beethoven
Landscape of La Ferté-Milon
Annunciation