Les Hôtels Pissarro

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Pissarro, Cézanne and the Impressionists

Before Impressionism suffered the caustic criticisms of journalist Louis Leroy, Cezanne and Pissarro were already putting brush to canvas, out in the open air, “face-to-face with nature” where they helped each other learn both rigor and spontaneity. In 1872, invited by his older colleague, Cezanne came to paint alongside Pissarro in Pontoise. Over the course of the next two years, master and pupil maintained an ongoing dialogue, enriching each other’s palette and carrying out their work side by side during one of their most prolific periods. Together, they produced works that many today consider as a significant moment in the history of painting.
In 1874, the painter and his friends held their first exhibition. Together with other artists, Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Cezanne and Guillaumin rented a suite of rooms at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, in Paris. It was there that, for the first time, they would be dubbed “Impressionists”.