Milwaukee Art Museum unveils exhibit of Pissarro’s Impressionism June 9

“PISSARRO: CREATING THE IMPRESSIONIST LANDSCAPE” will be on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum June 9–Sept. 9, 2007.

The exhibition explores Camille Pissarro’s transformation from a traditional landscape painter to a daring pioneer of Impressionism. More than 40 of the artist’s most beautiful and innovative canvases have been drawn from major museums and private collections around the world.

These paintings focus on a pivotal decade of Pissarro’s career from 1864–1874. During this brief yet intense period, Pissarro laid the groundwork for an entire generation of painters including Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Monet.

Exhibition highlights include Pissarro’s large-scale paintings from the Salon exhibitions of the 1860s and a powerful selection of landscapes seen in the first Impressionist show of 1874.

Colorful scenes of the picturesque French countryside show the evolution of Pissarro’s painting technique, palette, and subject matter from a Barbizon-influenced style to a modern one.

Included are works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d’Orsay, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Pissarro focused on local life: workers in the field, washerwomen, paths, and streams. The subject matter was not nearly as radical as the approach. Pissarro felt that light was inseparable from the object it illuminated, so to capture the light at a precise moment, he worked from direct observation.

Pissarro executed this emotive style with bold strokes and delicate applications of color. He studied closely the effects of light, climate, and season to create a style that was distinctly his own; yet, in turn, he set the course for the movement that would later become known as Impressionism.

Pissarro was at the center of the group that were to became masters under his guidance. The artist exhibited works at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, where the art was met with disdain and public outrage. Seven more Impressionist exhibitions followed over the years. Only Pissarro exhibited at them all. Finally, at the age of seventy-four, Pissarro (and the Impressionist movement) gained acceptance in the art world.

This exhibition is organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art. The Milwaukee presentation is coordinated by Laurie Winters, MAM curator of earlier European art. Presenting sponsors are Wisconsin Energy Corporation and M&I Foundation.

Tickets (which include general admission) are $14 adults, $12 seniors, $10 students, and free for children 12 and under. For info on group tour reservations and discounts phone 414-224-3842.

The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for Thursdays when hours are until 8 p.m. For information, visit www.mam.org or phone 414-224 –3200.