Camille Pissarro on Pierre-Auguste Renoir

“Renoir is a great success on the [Paris'] Salon; I think he is 'launched'. All the better! It's a very hard life, being poor.”

“Apparently Renoir has destroyed all the work he did last summer [of 1886] . . . He is exhibiting only a very few things [at the Paris Impressionism-exhibition, of M. Petit, May 1887], but they are extremely interesting; Whistler, too, is showing with us as well as Puvis de Chavannes.”

“I have had a long talk with Renoir. He admitted that the whole crowd – Durand-Ruel and his former admirers – were shouting at him, deploring his attempt to abandon his 'Romantic' period. He seems very sensitive to what we think of his exhibition. I told him that as far as we were concerned, the search for unity should be the aim of every intelligent artist – that even in spite of serious faults, it was more intelligent and artistic than wallowing in romanticism.”

“As for Renoir [with regard to his paintings at the Paris Impressionism-exhibition, of M. Petit, May 1887], again the same hiatus. I do understand what he is trying to do, it is proper not to want to stand still, but he chose to concentrate on the line, his figures are all separate entities, detached from one another without regard for color; the result is something unintelligible. Renoir, without the gift for drawing, and without his former instinctive feeling for beautiful colors, becomes incoherent.”

“I had a long conversation with Renoir. He admitted to me that everybody, Durand-Ruell and his former collectors attacked him, deploring his attempts to go beyond his romantic period. He seems to be very sensitive to what we think of his show; I told him that for us the search for unity was the end towards which every intelligent artist must bend his efforts, and that even with great faults it was more intelligent and more artistic to do this than to remain enclosed in romanticism. Well, now he doesn't get any more portraits to do.”