GENERAL DESCRIPTION
One of only four self-portraits by Camille Pissarro, this three-quarter-length likeness was created during a particularly sorrowful time in the artist's life. In 1897, one of Pissarro's sons suffered a stroke and another died from tuberculosis. Additionally, he was plagued with the worsening of a chronic eye infection that forced him to paint indoors. Although this painting is unfinished, it is the first self-portrait he painted in twenty-five years and may represent a moment of introspection following these hardships.
Pissarro, considered a father figure among many of the impressionists, presents himself as both a creative artist and wise advisor with his drooping beret, oversized smock, biblical beard, and somber expression. He painted this self-portrait in the same room as Place du Théâtre, Franҫais, Fog Effect (1985.R.50), and the same Parisian rooftops are visible through the window.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
NOTES
c. 1898
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 127.
Camille Pissarro's Self Portrait was painted between December 1897 and February 1898 in Pissarro's hotel suite on the second floor of the Hôtel du Louvre, on the place du Louvre at the center of Paris. In the hotel room, Pissarro worked on his most significant series of urban paintings, representing the avenue de l'Opéra. This self-portrait was made at a time of tragedy and emotional strain for the sixty-seven-year-old painter. Earlier in the year, he had nursed his eldest son, Lucien, back to health from a stroke, and his younger son, Félix, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died at the age of twenty-three on 25 November. Perhaps in an effort to deal with these hardships, Pissarro threw himself into his greatest series of urban paintings, creating fifteen masterpieces from the window of his room in a scant six weeks. Perhaps also to gauge his own strength and conquer the loneliness of a Paris hotel, he began this, his first painted self-portrait since 1873. As if these personal trials were not enough, Pissarro had the additional burden of living as a Jew in Paris at the height of anti-Semitism in that country. With the publication of Emile Zola's J'Accuse in January 1898, the Dreyfus Affair had emerged as the overriding national issue. For many reasons, Pissarro was more consumed with the fate of Captain Alfred Dreyfus than were his colleagues. These burdens - both moral and mortal - weighed on him and were exacerbated by his persistent eye infections.
Yet, when we look at this self-portrait and remind ourselves of Pissarro's problems, the painting seems to shed them in favor of the quiet persistence of work. For Pissarro, work was "the moral regulator of life" (Mirbeau 1904, preface). When he suffered traumas, he never sought to depict them or to embody their effect on his tortured soul but, rather, attempted to approach himself honestly and simply through the act of self-representation. He set himself up in his room at the center of a triangle - the window at his back, a mirror in front of him, and the painting between them. In this simple arrangement, he conjoined the two principal metaphors for painting - the mirror into the soul and the window onto the world. And at their nexus, he placed himself as a painter in the act of patient representation.
Pissarro never finished the painting, and we can measure his uncertainties and transformations as we look at it. The palette has been lowered and made strictly parallel to the bottom edge, and Pissarro adjusted his painting smock to gain control of the left side of the painting. Perhaps he abandoned the self-portrait in his haste to finish the series of cityscapes for exhibition at Durand-Ruel's gallery in June of the same year. In the end, Pissarro's views from the window were, for him, a more enduring indicator of his ideas than any self-portrait.
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Place of origin and depicted location: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
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WEB RESOURCES
- Tate, London~View Camille Pissarro's final self portrait.
- Guggenheim, New York~Read a biography of Pissarro.
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC~Check out Pissarro's self portrait etching c. 1890.
- The Clark, Williamstown, MA~View Pissarro's first self portrait.
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General Description
One of only four self-portraits by Camille Pissarro, this three-quarter-length likeness was created during a particularly sorrowful time in the artist's life. In 1897, one of Pissarro's sons suffered a stroke and another died from tuberculosis. Additionally, he was plagued with the worsening of a chronic eye infection that forced him to paint indoors. Although this painting is unfinished, it is the first self-portrait he painted in twenty-five years and may represent a moment of introspection following these hardships.
Pissarro, considered a father figure among many of the impressionists, presents himself as both a creative artist and wise advisor with his drooping beret, oversized smock, biblical beard, and somber expression. He painted this self-portrait in the same room as Place du Théâtre, Franҫais, Fog Effect (1985.R.50), and the same Parisian rooftops are visible through the window.
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2015.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Tate, London~View Camille Pissarro's final self portrait.
- Guggenheim, New York~Read a biography of Pissarro.
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC~Check out Pissarro's self portrait etching c. 1890.
- The Clark, Williamstown, MA~View Pissarro's first self portrait.
Notes
c. 1898
Richard Brettell, Impressionist Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 127.
Camille Pissarro's Self Portrait was painted between December 1897 and February 1898 in Pissarro's hotel suite on the second floor of the Hôtel du Louvre, on the place du Louvre at the center of Paris. In the hotel room, Pissarro worked on his most significant series of urban paintings, representing the avenue de l'Opéra. This self-portrait was made at a time of tragedy and emotional strain for the sixty-seven-year-old painter. Earlier in the year, he had nursed his eldest son, Lucien, back to health from a stroke, and his younger son, Félix, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died at the age of twenty-three on 25 November. Perhaps in an effort to deal with these hardships, Pissarro threw himself into his greatest series of urban paintings, creating fifteen masterpieces from the window of his room in a scant six weeks. Perhaps also to gauge his own strength and conquer the loneliness of a Paris hotel, he began this, his first painted self-portrait since 1873. As if these personal trials were not enough, Pissarro had the additional burden of living as a Jew in Paris at the height of anti-Semitism in that country. With the publication of Emile Zola's J'Accuse in January 1898, the Dreyfus Affair had emerged as the overriding national issue. For many reasons, Pissarro was more consumed with the fate of Captain Alfred Dreyfus than were his colleagues. These burdens - both moral and mortal - weighed on him and were exacerbated by his persistent eye infections.
Yet, when we look at this self-portrait and remind ourselves of Pissarro's problems, the painting seems to shed them in favor of the quiet persistence of work. For Pissarro, work was "the moral regulator of life" (Mirbeau 1904, preface). When he suffered traumas, he never sought to depict them or to embody their effect on his tortured soul but, rather, attempted to approach himself honestly and simply through the act of self-representation. He set himself up in his room at the center of a triangle - the window at his back, a mirror in front of him, and the painting between them. In this simple arrangement, he conjoined the two principal metaphors for painting - the mirror into the soul and the window onto the world. And at their nexus, he placed himself as a painter in the act of patient representation.
Pissarro never finished the painting, and we can measure his uncertainties and transformations as we look at it. The palette has been lowered and made strictly parallel to the bottom edge, and Pissarro adjusted his painting smock to gain control of the left side of the painting. Perhaps he abandoned the self-portrait in his haste to finish the series of cityscapes for exhibition at Durand-Ruel's gallery in June of the same year. In the end, Pissarro's views from the window were, for him, a more enduring indicator of his ideas than any self-portrait.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin and depicted location: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
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