PISSARRO CAMILLE: (1830-1903) French Impressionist Painter, often regarded as the father of the painting movement. A lengthy and extraordinary content A.L.S, `C. Pissarro´, two pages, 8vo, Le Havre, 18<sup>th</sup> July 1903, to his son `Rodo´, in French. Pissarro, in his usual careful and clean handwriting, explains in detail to his son what the Impressionism is, an amazing lecture, stating in part `J´ai reçu ce matin ta lettre dans laquelle il me semble que tu te décourages, il ne faut pas, il faut bien te mettre dans la tête qu´il n´y a rien de plus difficile que la recherche de la lumière et de l´air, et justement la difficulté que tu éprouves a monter de ton, prouve que tu en éprouves la nécessité, c´est déja un progrès… encore une fois, si tu ne montes pas assez de ton c´est parce que tu ne fouilles pas assez ton analyse des tons, c´est parce que tu ne tiens pas compte des colorations qui se trouvent dans les ombres, comme dans la lumiere…´ ("I received your letter this morning, in which you seem to be discouraged, you must not, you must register in your mind that there is nothing more difficult than the search of light and air, and it is precisely the difficulty that you are experiencing in bringing up a colour tone which proves that you are feeling that necessity, which is already a progress… once again, if you do not bring up enough the colour tone it is because you are not frisking enough you colour tone analysis, and that is because you are not considering the colouring existing in the shades as well as those in the light..") Pissarro continues explaining to his son that he has to be `powerful with the six colours´ and states `Non, la nature est plus simple, analyses, cherche ses valeurs, tu y arriveras! Si tu ne trouves pas les tons…. C´est tout bonnement parce que tu n´as pas regardé assez attentivement le rapport entre la lumière et l´ombre et dans l´ombre les reflets et dans la lumière les superpositions de tons plus ou moins lumineux...´ ("No, Nature is more simple than that, you have to analyse, search their values, you will manage! If you do not find the colour tones… It is simply because you have not been looking carefully enough to the relationship between the light and the shade, and in the shade the reflections and in the light the superposition of the more or less light colour tones…") And further again Pissarro states before concluding `C´est la le point; même dans le noir sombre on y découvre des colorations, c´est difficile mais on y arrive.. Une fois que tu auras trouvé cela, tu trouveras pour tout le reste, tu ne seras plus cartonneux, tu seras plus libre et ta couleur será plus fraiche et plus franche´ ("That is the main point; even in the dark black you can discover the colouring, it is difficult but it is possible.. Once you will find it, you will find all the rest, …you will be more free and your colour will be fresher and more pure") A letter of extraordinary content, a masterclass painting lesson. Very small overall minor age wear, otherwise G to VG   

 

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro (1878-1952) son of Camille Pissarro and Julie Vellay. Six of Pissarro´s seven children became painters.