Félix Pissarro
Horse by Félix Pissarro - Wood engraving

Name: Horse by Félix Pissarro - Wood engraving
Brand: Félix Pissarro
Price: 742.22 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

*UK BUYERS WILL PAY AN ADDITIONAL 20% VAT ON TOP OF THE ABOVE PRICE Horse by Félix Pissarro (1874-1897) Wood engraving 10 x 9 cm (4 x 3 ¹/₂ inches) Artist biography: Félix Pissarro, affectionately known to his family as “Titi”, was born in Pontoise in 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition. The third son of Camille Pissarro, Félix was a painter, etcher and caricaturist. From an early age his work demonstrated great strength and originality, prompting his father to comment that, of all his artist sons, Félix showed undoubtedly the most talent and promise of becoming a major artist. Aged 12, while apprenticed to a cabinet maker, Félix much preferred to roam the local countryside of Éragny, sketching and painting horses, much to the despair of his mother but the joy of his father. As Camille noted, Félix showed an abiding fascination with and talent for drawing horses, which is amply reflected in the majority of Félix’s work appearing in the Ashmolean museum collection. Of all his brothers, Félix bonded most closely with Georges, despite their different personalities. Dividing their time principally between London and Éragny, they also visited and painted in Belgium and Barcelona. Their works were exhibited in the 1893 French Decorative Art exhibition, organised by Paul Durand-Ruel in his Grafton Gallery, London, and in 1894 in Paris for the opening of Lucien Moline’s Neo-Impressionist Gallery. Félix also travelled to Belgium with his father Camille, where, hosted by the Neo-Impressionist painter Théo van Rysselberghe, they visited galleries and museums and painted together. On Camille’s return to Paris Félix remained in Belgium, happily sketching and painting in what was a very productive period for him. He was joined in Brussels by Georges in October 1894 and they both exhibited works in the Libre Esthétique show of February 1895 before returning to London. The brothers also began focussing on applied arts, making decorated wooden boxes painted with unique designs. In December 1895 their work was exhibited in Paris at the debut show of Siegfried Bing’s Maison de l’Art. During this period both brothers adopted pseudonyms, Georges choosing Manzana, the maiden name of Camille’s mother, while Félix chose Jean Roch. A settled and productive spell which continued throughout 1896 was ended in March 1897 when Félix’s health began to fail, just as brother Lucien, eleven years his senior, suffered a stroke. While Lucien would eventually recover, in one of life’s cruel ironies Félix succumbed to tuberculosis and died in November 1897, at the age of 23, before he was able to begin realising his full artistic potential. In a posthumous article, Octave Mirabeau lamented his untimely passing, attributing to him “uncommon talent, fervent imagination, originality, passion, vision, spontaneity and, above all, natural aptitude”, qualities which he was adamant would have made of Félix a truly great artist.

Creator:

Félix Pissarro (1874 - 1897, French)

Dimensions:

Height: 3.94 in (10 cm)Width: 3.55 in (9 cm)

Medium:

Woodcut

Period:

19th Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

London, GB

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU261213122682

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Félix Pissarro

Félix Pissarro, known within his family as Félix II, so as not to confuse him with his beloved uncle Félix, after whom he was named, was born in September 1917 in Beynac in the Dordogne. Félix II was the grandson of Camille Pissarro and son of the well-established artist Georges Manzana and Blanche Moriset (also known as Roboa), a well-reputed pastel painter. Having grown up in such an artistic milieu, and under the artistic guidance of his parents, Félix went on to become one of the most active artists of this third generation of Pissarro painters. The contributions of each of these generations of Pissarro artists over 165 years helped to make the family one of the most preeminent families in the history of art of the 20th century.

Félix spent his formative years living in Les Andelys in Normandy but was forced to leave in 1939, when, at the outbreak of the war, Manzana decided to move his family to Casablanca in North Africa, where they stayed until 1947. Despite the foreign setting and the tumultuous period, during this time Félix often exhibited his early works alongside his parents. After the death of his mother in 1949, Félix moved briefly to Paris with his father before they returned to Les Andelys, all the while developing a close working relationship with his father. Félix was particularly close with Manzana, who would continue to be his mentor throughout his career. Indeed, even following Manzana’s death, Félix continued to execute his paintings using the artistic traditions that his father had taught him, while simultaneously developing his own individual style. This unique style is most visible in his pastel drawings and sketches that seem to reflect the haste and spontaneity of the Impressionist painters.

Nature and pastoral settings dominate Félix’s oeuvre, and he was clearly influenced by the landscape around him. In 1953, Félix married Marie-Louis Monvoisin, and together with Manzana, they moved first to Negresco in Nice, before settling into a hillside home in the idyllic town of Menton on the Côte d’Azur near the Italian border. Father and son would often paint here together. In this hillside setting, Félix frequently chose to depict the forests near his home. Both his vibrant pastels and oil paintings, as well as his charcoal sketches, convey the dappled light through the leaves in the forest and the density of the foliage. These landscapes are perhaps even reminiscent of his uncle Paulémile’s lush and verdant landscapes. In 1978, due to an illness, Félix left his hillside home and moved to a home closer to Menton, which looked onto the sea. This view of the seaside featured prominently in his works during this period. Despite Félix’s evident preference for the tranquillity of a rural lifestyle, he frequently participated in shows over the course of his career. While living in the respective places, he had shows at the Biennale in Menton and the Negresco in Nice. Furthermore, he was a long-standing exhibitor at the Trianon Gallery in Nice.

(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)