Cézanne and Pissarro: a shared vision
Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro, both giants of late 19th century French painting, were friends and colleagues for twenty years, from approximately 1867 to 1887. They initially found common ground in their shared rejection by the art establishment, and both exhibited their works in the Salon des Refusés, the venue for artists whose work had been turned down and maligned by the Academy.
During this period, the two artists worked side by side in the regions of Pontoise and Auvers, near Paris. The current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Cézanne & Pissarro: Pioneering Modern Painting, brings together for the first time paintings that the two made together of the same scenes. These works have been loaned to the show by museums from all over the world, and their pairing offers an invaluable opportunity to investigate the ways in which artistic collaboration can both inspire and enhance originality. These two artists tried new and different techniques together, and each acknowledged the influence of the other on his palette and approach to painting.
It’s fun to compare the work of these two major artists, and wonderful to see these pairs of paintings reunited, if only briefly.
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