Camille Pissarro

And she was, she was the only female member of a group called Les Vingt, which was a group of Belgian artists.

But they were Pissarro, Monet, Gauguin all became quite famous because these Belgian artists really liked them and started putting on exhibitions for them.

Um, she was one of the first people to own a car in Belgium.

Really?

Study of a girl.

Attributed to Pissarro.

Unsigned.

Unauthenticated.

Midsummer.

I'd just completed a long stint of filming in and around Naples.

After the sweltering heat of those studio arcs, Luigi's invitation to spend a few days with him on his yacht, anchored off of Sorrento, would have been eagerly accepted in any event, but I remembered as the launch ferried me across the mirror smoothness of that beautiful bay that it was the prospect of at last viewing Luigi's recently acquired Pissarro, that made the invitation totally irresistible.

Later, in the cool comfort of the yacht's saloon, I was not to be disappointed.

The big events this season, according to advisors, are Art Basel Paris in October, plus fairs that offer something new and specific, including the first edition of Freeze Abu Dhabi in November and Art Week Tokyo's return, where the Basel Social Club offshoot Tokyo Jazz Club will make its debut.

On the auction side, Sotheby's has landed one of the biggest consignments in years, the Blockier Collection, a trove of impressionist and post-impressionist masterworks by Van Gogh, Descartes, Pissarro, and Renoir.

It's valued around $450 million, and it'll be sold in New York this November.

A Cezanne from the collection alone could fetch over $120 million, and a Van Gogh chestnut tree painting could bring in $150 to $200 million.

Theo had found him.

Theo had been recommended, or rather a different artist called Camille Pissarro-

Your favorite.

Not my favorite, but the senior-

While he started as a businessman and stockbroker, he soon began to paint, and by 1882, he was a full-time painter.

His first contacts were with the Impressionists, such as Pissarro, Seurat, Degas, and others.

But pretty soon he moved on from that movement and developed what is now called Synthesism, in which neither form nor color predominate, but each has an equal role.

In 1887, he made a visit to Martinique, a place that first planted in him a love for faraway and more quote-unquote primitive cultures.

Mm.

Like in my view, maybe, you know, Sisley sometimes makes a good one, but in my view, Pissarro doesn't come anywhere near him.

And, you know, Renoir is a beautiful artist, but it, but it goes off on a completely different thing.

But in terms of just like looking at something and, and, and not judging it, that, that is Monet, you know? And so back to that woman on the hill.

Yeah.

So they are, they have a genuine artistic, fruitful relationship.

Yeah.

He tries two other artists, both of whom say no, and then he turns to Paul Gauguin.

The, the charitable thing you could say is you've mentioned he spent some time in Brittany, and there is a sense with Gauguin that he is typical of the culture at that moment, where in the same way that Vincent gets jaded with Paris and leaves, there is a sense of being a bit over the metropolitan phenomenon, industrialized society-

Mm-hmm

... and wanting somehow to get away from high sophisticated culture and, and rejuvenate artistic energies in a place that's more, you know, to use contested terms today, quote unquote primitive-

Yeah