id: 541185 accession number: 2023.119 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2023.119 updated: 2025-03-19 12:50:27.918000 Self-Portrait, c. 1890–91. Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903). Zinc etching with aquatint on light tan wove paper; platemark: 18.7 x 17.7 cm (7 3/8 x 6 15/16 in.); sheet: 34.7 x 27.4 cm (13 11/16 x 10 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2023.119 title: Self-Portrait title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1890–91 creation date earliest: 1885 creation date latest: 1896 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: France technique: zinc etching with aquatint on light tan wove paper department: Prints collection: PR - Etching type: Print find spot: catalogue raisonne: Delteil 90; Shapiro 34 --- CREATORS * Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903) - artist Camille Pissarro's parents ran a general merchandise business on St. Thomas. After attending boarding school in Paris, Pissarro returned to the West Indies to work for his father from 1847 until 1852. As an artist he was largely self-taught, receiving some instruction from Fritz Melbye (1826-1896), a Danish artist with whom he traveled to Venezuela in 1852. When Pissarro returned to Paris in 1855, he shared a studio with Anton Melbye (1818-1875), Fritz's brother, and with David Jacobsen (1821-1871). He took classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1856 and three years later attended the Académie Suisse, where he befriended artists such as Cézanne (q.v.), Monet (q.v.), and Guillaumin (q.v.). Corot (q.v.) encouraged him to paint landscapes around Paris, and he was listed as Corot's pupil in the catalogues of the Salons of 1864 and 1865. He had met Julie Vellay in 1860, with whom he would have eight children; they married in 1871. Pissarro exhibited regularly at the Salons from 1859 to 1870, although his work received little attention and he sold hardly anything. In 1866 he settled in Pontoise, often returning to Paris where he kept a studio. He frequented Émile Zola's "Thursdays" (weekly literary gatherings) and associated with Manet's (q.v.) artistic circle that gathered in the Café Guerbois. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) Pissarro fled with his family, first to Montfoucault and then to London, where he worked with Monet and Daubigny (q.v.) and was introduced to the dealer Durand-Ruel. In 1872 he returned to Pontoise, where he painted with Cézanne. Around 1869 Pissarro began painting in a purely impressionist style, and in 1874 he helped organize the first impressionist exhibition. He moved to Éragny-sur-Epte in 1884, where he came into contact with Seurat (q.v.) and Paul Signac (1863-1935) and subsequently began to work in a pointillist style. He eventually found this technique too limiting, and returned to an impressionist mode, often working in series. By the end of his career his landscapes and depictions of city life sold well, and in 1892 he was given a retrospective exhibition at Durand-Ruel. By now, the artist had developed strongly anarchist convictions. Pissarro not only painted and made drawings, he also experimented with etching and lithography. --- measurements: Platemark: 18.7 x 17.7 cm (7 3/8 x 6 15/16 in.); Sheet: 34.7 x 27.4 cm (13 11/16 x 10 13/16 in.) state of the work: State: II/II (Delteil and Shapiro; only according to Johnson) edition of the work: Edition: about 28 lifetime impressions support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Inscribed, lower left, in graphite [in the artist’s hand]: 1er Etat n°8 / Portrait translation: remark: inscription: signed, lower right, in graphite [in the artist’s hand]: C. Pissarro translation: remark: inscription: inscribed, lower left, in graphite [in later hand]: D.90 2e état annoté par erreur 1er état translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Shapiro, Barbara Stern. “Self-Portrait, 1890-1.” In Pissarro: Camille Pissarro 1830-1903: Hayward Gallery, London 30 October 1980-11 January 1981, Grand Palais, Paris 30 January-27 April 1981, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 19 May-9 August 1981. Exh. Cat. London and Boston: Arts Council of Great Britain and Museum of Fine Arts, 1980 page number: Mentioned, p. 217, no, 134. url: Mayor, A. Hyatt, Anthony Blunt, and Adam von Bartsch. Le Peintre Graveur Illustré: Illustrations to Adam Bartsch's Le Peintre Graveur, Volumes XII-XXI. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971. page number: Vol. 17, mentioned (unpaginated), no. 90. url: Shapiro, Barbara Stern. Camille Pissarro; The Impressionist Printmaker. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1973. page number: Mentioned (unpaginated), no. 34. url: Johnson, R. Stanley. “Pissarro’s ‘Self-Portrait’.” Print Quarterly 27, no. 3 (September 2010). page number: p. 283-285 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.119/2023.119_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.119/2023.119_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2023.119/2023.119_full.tif