Since your departure, I have made, in addition to canvases, five fans with which I am happy. I have two Fogs . . .; there is one on Japanese paper, it’s magical, and the other one on the back of a skin, onion skin paper, this one unexpected.
Pissarro exhibited fans for the first time in 1879 at the fourth impressionist exhibition: 12 fans accompanied 25 other works. It was a new art form for him and fertile ground for experimentation. Like his fellow Impressionists, Pissarro was inspired by the Japanese techniques, materials, and art forms—including fans—on display at the 1867 and 1878 Expositions Universelles. More often decorative than functional, impressionist fans were framed and hung on picture rails and could seduce a new clientele at lower prices than oil paintings. For Pissarro, fans were an additional medium through which he challenged artistic expectations in his search for compositional unity.
Happy are those who see beauty in humble places where others see nothing.
Herd of Sheep, Setting Sun
1889
Gouache (opaque watercolor) on silk fan
Colección Pérez Simón
Exhibition Guide Sections
- Introduction
- Artistic Beginnings: St. Thomas and Venezuela
- Path to Impressionism
- A Life in Letters
- Portrait of a Family
- The Impressionist Journey
- Rural Communities: Harvest and Market Scenes
- Pissarro's Fans
- At Home in Éragny
- A Garden Retreat
- Against the Grain: Politics and Neo-Impressionism
- Normandy Harbors
- Sights of Paris
- Audio Guide
The Honest Eye: Camille Pissarro's Impressionism is co-organized by the Denver Art Museum and the Museum Barberini, Potsdam.
It is presented by Jana and Fred Bartlit, Barbara Bridges, Bridget and John Grier, the Kristin and Charles Lohmiller Exhibitions Fund, and Craig Ponzio.
The exhibition is also supported by the Tom Taplin Jr. and Ted Taplin Endowment, Adolph Coors Exhibition Endowment Fund, Birnbaum Social Discourse Project, Lori and Grady Durham, Kathie and Keith Finger, Sally Cooper Murray, Ellen and Morris Susman, Lisë Gander and Andy Main, Mary Pat and Richard McCormick, Kent Thiry and Denise O'Leary, Robert Lehman Foundation, Christie's, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by CBS Colorado.
