Camille Pissarro on Claude Monet

“I received a letter from Monet, who is in despair because he has not succeeded with the canvases on which he worked most furiously, as happened with those I did at Gisors. - My work is going better, but I am only beginning.”

“Monet has been to Durand [their art-dealer in Paris] and brought the paintings he did this year [1886]; he has one in bright sunlight, it is an incomprehensible fantasy; M. Caseburne himself admitted to me that it is absolutely incoherent, blobs of white mixed with Veronese greens and yellows, and the drawing is completely lost. The other canvases are more carefully done, better, but dark grey. My 'Eragny' has more calm, and you can see in this painting the advantage of unmixed colors and clear and solid draftsmanship. I assure you I would not be afraid to show my work with Monet's. Durand says that Monet pities me because of the course I have taken [following Pointillism]. So!.. .Perhaps he does, now.. ..but wait. M. Robertson [good client of Durand in the gallery] being insensitive to Monet's qualities, Durand asked me to explain to him, in English, the good points of Monet's work. I did my best, loyally and without hesitation, for despite his mistakes I know how gifted is this artist [Monet]; but M. Robertson can't stand his work: 'And who painted this horror?'”

“I say this: Monet plays his salesman's game, and it serves him; but it is not in my character to do likewise, nor is it to my interest, and it would be in contradiction above all to my conception of art. I am not a romantic! I would really have no raison d'etre, if I did not pursue a considered technique which yet leaves me free to express myself, and does not inhibit an artist who has the gift.”

“..tell me whether she [Pissarro's wife] did not find Monet's things a little too dark? [Monet's paintings at the Paris exhibition, at M. Petit, May 1887]. I do not know whether I am correct in this, but these works seem to me to lack luminosity, by which I mean the light that bathes bodies in the shade as well as those in the sun. The effect is certainly decorative, but there is little finesse and crudities are prominent; I do not know if it belongs to our vision which aspires to harmony and demands an art which while not decoration is yet decorative.”

“He [ Bracquemond ] also noted the crude execution in some of the Monet's [paintings at the Paris Impressionism-exhibition at M. Petit, May 1887], particularly in one of the Holland canvases [Monet painted them in May 1876], in which the impasto is so thick that an unnatural light is added to the canvas, you can hardly conceive how objectionable it is to me, - even worse is the swept and meager sky - no, I [ Camille Pissarro ] cannot accept this approach to art. - But the walls in the picture seem to me very well treated.”

“This is a bad moment for me, Durand doesn't take my paintings. Miss Cassatt was much surprised to hear that he no longer buys my work, it seems that he sells a great deal. - But for the moment people want nothing but 'Monet's', apparently he can't paint enough pictures to meet the demand. Worst of all they all want 'Sheaves in the Setting Sun'! always the same story, everything he does goes to America at prices of four, five and six thousand francs. All this comes, as Durand remarked to me, from not shocking the collectors!”

“I saw George de Bellio|de Bellio yesterday; he sends you [Pissarro's son Lucien] his best. He mentioned that Monet was going to have a one-man show at Durand-Ruel's, and exhibit nothing but Sheaveshttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Monet_haystacks-at-sunset-frosty-weather-1891_W1282.jpg. The clerk at Boussod & Valadon told me that the collectors want only Sheaves. I don't understand how Monet can submit to this demand that he repeat himself — such is the terrible consequence of success! It happens all the time!”