Camille Pissarro, Anka Muhlstein
Camille Pissarro, Anka Muhlstein
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Camille Pissarro
The Audacity of Impressionism

Author: Anka Muhlstein, Adriana Hunter

Narrator: Christine Rendel

Unabridged: 9 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/28/2023


Synopsis

From the acclaimed biographer and author of Balzac's Omelette, an engaging new work on the life of "the father of Impressionism" and the role his Jewish background played in his artistic creativity.

The celebrated painter Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) occupied a central place in the artistic scene of his time: a founding member of the new school of French painting, he was a close friend of Monet, a longtime associate in Degas's and Mary Cassatt's experimental work, a support to Cézanne and Gauguin, and a comfort to Van Gogh, and was backed by the great Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel throughout his career. Nevertheless, he felt a persistent sense of being set apart, different, and hard to classify. Settled in France from the age of twenty-five but born in the Caribbean, he was not French and what is more he was Jewish. Although a resolute atheist who never interjected political or religious messages in his art, he was fully aware of the consequences of his lineage.

Drawing on Pissarro's considerable body of work and a vast collection of letters that show his unrestrained thoughts, Anka Muhlstein offers a nuanced, intimate portrait of the artist whose independent spirit fostered an environment of freedom and autonomy.

About Anka Muhlstein

Anka Muhlstein is the author of biographies of Queen Victoria, James de Rothschild, and Cavelier de La Salle; studies on Catherine de Medicis, Marie de Medicis, and Anne of Austria; a double biography, Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart; Balzac's Omelette; Monsieur Proust's Library; and The Pen and the Brush. She won the Goncourt Prize for her biography of Astolphe de Custine, and has received two prizes from the Academie francaise. She and her husband, Louis Begley, are the authors of Venice for Lovers. They live in New York City.


Reviews

Impresionistai ir post-impresionistai yra sena mano meilė. Tad, kaišioju savo spragas. Man rods, lietuviškai nėra išleista monografijų apie jį. Gal vertėtų išverst šią. Gak kiek sausoka, bet pakankamai informatyvi knyga. Patiko, kad autorė skyrė dėmesio ne tik dailininkui, bet ir tuometinei jo aplink......more

Goodreads review by Jane

I didn't know much about Pissaro before reading this book. I guess I thought of him as a second tier impressionist painter, but now I'm much more appreciative of his work and life. And watching the Art Exhibition on film movie about him was a great bonus as it brought many of his paintings to life f......more

Goodreads review by Timothy

This well written biography shows us the many sides of Pissarro、the artist, the friend of impressionists, husband, father, and alien living in France. The book is neither too long nor too condensed and offers a rich portrait of a man and his times.......more

Goodreads review by Debbie

I never knew much about the painter Camille Pissarro before reading this marvelous book by Anka Muhlstein. I have gained a new appreciation for Pissarro’s paintings. Pissarro, I discovered, was a hardworking, loyal, benevolent family man, a prolific artist, as well as a founding and steadfast member......more

Goodreads review by Albert

It was Adam Gopnik’s review of this new biography of Camille Pissarro in the New Yorker that persuaded me to read this book. Pissarro, sometimes dubbed the “Father of Impressionism,” is a painter generally well represented in museums showing impressionist paintings. For example, the National Gallery......more