Camille Pissarro. “‘Kew Gardens’ (London)”, circa 1892. Watercolor on paper.
Fall is a vibrant and busy season for art in the city. With EXPO Chicago just behind us, enticing exhibitions can be spotted at many galleries and L’Alliance Française de Chicago (AFC) is in on the festivities. The cultural institution is currently hosting a one-week-only exhibition featuring rare works on paper by French Impressionist Camille Pissarro.
L’Alliance acquired a loan of Pissarro’s important works on paper from a private Midwestern collection through the R.S. Johnson Fine Art Gallery, whose president R. Stanley Johnson is an AFC board member.
Director of programs at AFC Aimée Laberge spoke with Newcity about the works that they find to be the most captivating and significant: “I know Stanley thinks the self-portrait ‘Camille Pissarro par lui-même’ (circa 1890) is the most important piece in the collection, but I personally prefer the lightness and joyousness in the ‘Kew Gardens’ (London, circa 1892) watercolor.”
Camille Pissarro. “Self-portrait,” circa 1890.
Pissarro studied in Paris as did other important Impressionists such as Monet and Renoir, the latter of whom once called Pissarro’s work “revolutionary.” He is also classified as a father figure for Post-Impressionist artists like Cézanne, Van Gogh and Seurat.
A collective of twenty rare prints, watercolors and pastels are on view at the Alliance Française through September 24, only a short while. Considering that almost all of Pissarro’s works are now permanently housed in museums, this exhibition is exceptionally rare. (Mahjabeen Syed)
The exhibition is free and open the public during business hours through Thursday, September 24 at the Alliance Française de Chicago, 810 North Dearborn.
Elliot Josephine Leila Reichert is a curator, critic and editor. She is the inaugural Curator of Contemporary Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University. She was formerly Curatorial Fellow at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Art Editor of Newcity and Assistant Curator at the Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
