Studio: international art (69.1916)

The Paintings of Lucien Pissarro

cannot be cultivated, undreamed of in the philo- of the following year were poems in colour, and
sophy of those who paint with one eye on the there were others too numerous to be named here,
public taste and are concerned, at the moment of The gradual development of his work has led,
working, chiefly with how Turner saw or what through a closer and more compact organisation
Constable did. This expression of a simple and of colour values, to the expression of greater
sincere mind (how rare in these days of Vorticism solidity and a more marked definition of planes,
and other depravities ! ) which appears so naive possibly with less saturation. It has become more
has nothing in common with that self-conscious intellectual. It is impossible here to trace Pissarro's
naivete (save the mark !) introduced by Mr. Roger development through all its stages. The pattern or
Fry under the generic title of Post-Impressionism composition is, in his work, an integral part of the
and practised to-day by so many smart young men colour and depends upon it, but the subtlety of his
who try to draw like children and succeed only in colour-expression practically defies reproduction,
painting like navvies. Nor has it been possible, in these brief notes,

Pissarro's method is admirably adapted to the to consider his work as a wood-engraver and
realisation of his vision. In fact it is moulded designer. The " Eragny Press," for which he
and developed by his ideas: it has grown according designed the type and where he prints his beautiful
to his needs and is still growing. The relationship books, is famous in both hemispheres. His work
of the technique to the idea (though these things in that direction would demonstrate his incompar-
are truly inseparable) is of paramount importance. able taste in a manner which would reveal him
Certain ideas can only be expressed by a certain as an artist and creator of the first rank,
technique, for the expres-
sion and the idea are one.
The cultivation of a special
method for its own sake—
the vice of later modern
art—is a symptom of deca-
dence.

In 1893 Pissarro had
settled in Epping to the
painting of landscapes and
trees. It was a period of
simple joy in Nature, of
delight in the varying effects
of light and atmosphere
whether suffused with sun-
light or refracted by morn-
ing mists. These pictures
have that quality of intimite
which is characteristic of
Impressionist painting. A
typical painting of this
period, The Garden Gate
(1894) possesses the
qualities of great art. Its
ingredients are of the
simplest—the garden path,
the white gate, and the
trees beyond bathed in the
sunlight. It is a song of
the morning in which truth
and beauty are one. This
picture was only one of
many. The Yellow Tree

{1894) and An Essex Hall " rowemount, cold harbour" by lucien pissarro

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