At first, he painted only palm trees, for the father of the Impressionists grew up in the South Seas — perhaps those many years in the Caribbean sparked his curiosity about France. Perhaps he had seen so much sunlight that, starting in the 1860s in France, he was able to begin capturing the dark magic of a winter’s day and the somber stillness of a cloud-covered July afternoon. Indeed, many of Camille Pissarro’s paintings bear such precise titles; he wanted to specify exactly the season and time of day they were created so that we might understand the light within them. And the colors that light conjures in nature in April, so different from those in August.

In the latest episode of the ZEIT podcast “Augen zu” (“Close Your Eyes”), Florian Illies and Giovanni di Lorenzo turn their attention to the extraordinary French artist Camille Pissarro. The episode was recorded live at the Museum Barberini, on the occasion of the Pissarro retrospective.

“Perhaps Claude Monet was more virtuosic, perhaps his compositions more daring — but no one looked upon the world with as much humility as Pissarro. No one wielded such a vast palette, no one saw and painted as many shades of green as he did. Indeed, the authenticity of his perception of nature may surpass that of any other Impressionist — this quiet, modest artist who struggled for a long time to make a living from his art because his subjects were so pure and so truthful. He always painted a nature altered by human hands, showing the paths that traverse the fields, the farmers working the land, the gardens cultivated by people. Often he included his wife within these scenes. It is an earthbound art, one that seeks to reveal what is. Perhaps the revolutionary essence of Impressionism can be best experienced through this quiet, precise artist: the world-changing power of light and the world-changing presence of humanity within nature.”
— Florian Illies

Listen to the podcast (Please note: the podcast is available only in German.)