Pissarro ... my journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso

The Baltimore Museum of Art beckoned to Jay Rolfe today. He's been intending to go to see the "Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape" exhibit since he read Ed Sozanski's excellent review in the Philadelphia Inquirer on April 1, 2007 (no fooling!). I mentioned Sozanski's review in my post of April 2. The exhibit was all Sozanski said it was, and I enjoyed it. Since it was landscapes, it didn't include Pissarro's great paintings of crowds on Paris' plazas and bridges. The development of his landscape style over about 10 years, from 1865 to 1875 covered by the exhibit, showed the development of impressionist style. Here's an sample from 1873 lent by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, "Hoarfrost at Ennery." The first Impressionist exhibit was in 1874, and Pissarro had spent many months painting separately with Cezanne and Monet by that time. I can see the cross influences. Here's a link to the Museum's page on the exhibit. www.artbma.org/exhibitions/index.html

This was my first visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art. What a great museum. They've got scads of Antioch mosaics, great old master paintings such as this Botticelli, "Madonna Adoring The Child With Five Angels," and a great 20th Century collection which is especially rich in Matisse paintings and other materials. Here's an example of Matisse, "Striped Robe, Fruit, and Anemones" from 1940.

It was a wonderful day today! You can see some completed expressions of Jay Rolfe's unique artistic idea on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. That's today's step on the journey of Jay Rolfe From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso.