Pissarro's parents sent him to a French
boarding school when he was 11. His
talent for drawing was discovered and
encouraged there.
After his return to St. Thomas in
1847, the budding artist expressed .
more interest in sketching scenes of
the port than in overseeing the busi-
ness transactions he was supposed to
supervise.
Pissarro's artistic interests were fur-
ther strengthened when he met the
itinerant Danish painter Fritz Melbye
in about 1850. Melbye specialized in
op- topographical and maritime subjects,
and Pissarro followed his lead while
also showing an interest in the scenes
of everyday life.
Breaking away from St. Thomas,
Pissarro and Melbye went to Caracas,
Venezuela, in 1852. For two years,
Pissarro supported himself through his
art.
After Pissarro returned for a brief
a visit to St. Thomas, his father consent-
ed to the young man's traveling to
France for further training, and in
September 1855, he left his home and
never returned.
Many of Pissarro's early works were
left with Melbye, who went to New
York and was befriended by artist
Frederic Church. By the late 1850s,
Melbye journeyed to China, entrusting
some of his possessions to Church.
After Melbye died in Shanghai in
1869, his sketches probably remained
in New York City until 1889, when
Church closed his studio and moved
his contents to Olana, his home on
the Hudson River.
Most sketches in what now is called
the Melbye/Pissarro collection have a
misspelled scrawled pencil "Melby"
signature, added by Church to distin-
guish those works from the pieces he
and others had done.
This "Melby" was added to a few
sketches legibly and authentically
signed "Pissarro."
As Pissarro became a founder of the
Impressionist movement, he exempli-
fied its techniques by working out-
doors, executing paintings in rapid
strokes and experimenting with col-
ored shadows and reflected light. ❑

issarro, the great-
j ,of
Camille Pissarro,

gra4
wrote-introduction to the
60
illustrated catalogue
Camilte Pissarro
in the Caribbean, 1850-1855;
Drawings from the Collection at
Olana."
Th e
.g Pissarro became cura-
tor n I
t d C°ntemPorarY
Art
srsity Art Gallery
b een chief curator at
in
the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort
Worth, Texas, since 1994.
Joachim Pissarro has cumted or
co-curated exhibitions for museums
in London Jerusalem Dallas and

doing something on Cezanne and
Pissarro. One joy of being at Yale is
that you're not limited by one spe-
cialty or another.
I'm also interested in conternpo-
rar-y- art, and another joy of being at
Yale is that the museum is right next
door to the first and foremost art
school in the country, the Yale Art
School. Some extremely important
people have come out
of that school.

-

Q: Are there exam-
ples of your great-
grandfather's paint-
ings at Yale?

Q: Were these inherit0.440
chased on your own?
A: Both. These are things _ I keep very
privately: I found him a very impor-
tant force, especially as a printmaker,
just like Degas, for instance. I was
[particularly] interested in his works
on paper.

Q: Have any members of the
Pissarro family
retained their
Jewish identity?
A: Pissarro was
mown to have
nothing to do with
religion whatsoever.
He was a very com-
eist, a

%ant? ,0"'

•

Camille Pissarro in the Caribbean
continues through Nov. 16 at The
Jewish Museum in New York; for
information, call (212) 423-3271.
The exhibit will be at the Albany
Institute of Art in Albany, N.Y.,
c , from March 28-June 13; for infor-
mation, call (518) 463-4478.

Q: As you begin your work at Yale,
do you have any goals for the
gallery?
A: I'm going to continue working on
my area of specialty, which is
Impressionism and Post
Impressionism. I'm interested in

E Are you a artist a well?
A: No. Absolutely not. I don't have
time nor any talent.

Qs Igo you 0.irn...a.Tiy of ).out. great...
grandfather's works?
I OWn. a few. thingS...

° broke
his life, the.one w enhe
away from his family, his parents, in
order to launch hirnseif and fake a lot
of risks with an artist's career. it is a
great opportunity to discover some-
thing previously- unknown about a
eat artist

.

10/31

1997

97

