The art dealer who bought and sold more Impressionist paintings that all others combined. Was he saint or sinner? Inventor or architect?
Durand-Ruel
During his lifetime, Durand-Ruel bought a total of 1,500 paintings by Renoir, over 1,000 Monets, 800 Pissarros, over 400 by Degas, and almost 400 from each of Sisley and Mary Cassatt.
The vital relationship between painter and patron, donor, dealer and others. Shown in examples from Rubens, Velázquez, Brett, Renoir and Bonnard.
Pissarro started a realist, became Impressionist, then Neo-Impressionist, before returning to human landscapes. Sisley ploughed the Impressionist furrow all the way.
Continuing to paint series of human landscapes, in his final years Pissarro was highly productive. Here are views of Dieppe and Paris.
Moving back to Impressionist style, he painted the countryside around Éragny, and views of the cities of London and Paris.
In 1885-86, he decided to become a Neo-Impressionist, but after 3 years of painting some of the finest Divisionist paintings, he faced a difficult decision.
In this period, his paintings moved away from Impressionism and simple landscapes, as he slowly became ‘pointillist’ and incorporated more figures.
Despite continuing financial distress, worsened when Durand-Ruel stopped buying his paintings, some of Pissarro’s finest pure Impressionist works.
Although he only painted 14 oils in England, they mark an early peak in his art. Subsequent landscapes around Louveciennes and Pontoise are numerous and superb too.
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