Baltimore, MD - The Baltimore Museum of Art has organized the first major exhibition to explore Camille Pissarro’s transformation from a traditional landscape painter to a daring pioneer of Impressionism.  Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape, on view until May 13, 2007, brings together 45 of the artist’s most beautiful and innovative canvases from major museums and private collections around the world to focus on a pivotal decade of his career, 1864–1874. During this brief yet intense period, Pissarro’s experimental techniques and vision laid the groundwork for an entire generation of painters.

Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape is a special ticketed event featuring a complimentary Acoustiguide audio tour.  General admission to the BMA and the permanent collection is free.

Highlights include large-scale paintings included in the Salon exhibitions of the 1860s and a powerful selection of landscapes seen in the first Impressionist show of 1874.  Colorful scenes of the picturesque French countryside show the evolution of Pissarro’s painting technique, palette, and subject matter from a Barbizon-influenced style toward modernism.  These works have been brought together from collections around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d’Orsay, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as seldom seen private collections.

“Inspired by an early Pissarro landscape in the Museum’s collection, BMA curator Katy Rothkopf has conceived a compelling exhibition that further establishes Pissarro as a leader in the Impressionist movement,” said BMA Director Doreen Bolger.  “I know visitors in Baltimore and other cities on the tour will enjoy discovering these exceptional paintings.”

Examples of Pissarro’s evolution as a painter include the BMA’s Strollers on a Country Road, La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire (1864), an early exploration into landscape painting influenced by the solid construction and bold palette of the Barbizon school.  Large-scale Salon paintings such as Côte des Jalais, Pontoise (1867)demonstrate the artist’s growing power of spatial organization and firmly constructed composition. Hints of Pissaro's interest in the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere are revealed in The Corner of the Route de Versailles and the Chemin de l’Aqueduc, Louveciennes (1869), considered one of his first forays into Impressionism.  The exhibition culminates with the presentation of three out of five of his paintings from the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.  These magnificent works—Orchard in Bloom (1872), The Chestnut Trees at Osny (c. 1873), and Hoarfrost at Ennery (1873)—showcase a varied palette, unique quality of light, and atmospheric changes that look forward to the experimentation that continued in Pissarro’s career as one of the leaders of the Impressionists.

The exhibition travels to the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin (June 9–September 9, 2007) and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee (October 7, 2007–January 6, 2008).  A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

This exhibition is organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art and curated by BMA Curator of European Painting & Sculpture Katy Rothkopf.

CATALOGUE
The exhibition catalogue brings together 49 exquisite works from the touring exhibition, from formal Salon compositions to a selection of daring entries in the first Impressionist exhibition. Essays on the development of Pissarro’s painting style from 1864 to 1874 and on the influence of place in his work acknowledge his formative years in St. Thomas and Venezuela and his fascination with the countryside surrounding Paris.  Technical studies of several of the artist’s paintings from the 1860s reveal new insights into the artist’s creative process.  The 224-page catalogue with 90 color illustrations is written by BMA Curator of Painting & Sculpture Katy Rothkopf, with an essay by Christopher Lloyd, one of the world’s leading authorities on Pissarro. Hardback $45; paperback $30.  The catalogue is available in The BMA Shop, 443-573-1844.

THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19^th-century, modern, and contemporary art.  Founded in 1914, the BMA’s outstanding collection encompasses 90,000 works of art, including the largest and most significant holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh.  An expanding collection of contemporary art features iconic post-1960 works by Andy Warhol and Sol LeWitt, as well as exciting acquisitions by artists such as Kara Walker and Olafur Eliasson.  The BMA is also recognized for an internationally acclaimed collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15^th century to the present; European painting and sculpture from Old Masters to the 19^th century; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts and Maryland period rooms; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of Asian, ancient American, and Pacific art.  The BMA’s Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres.

The BMA is located on Art Museum Drive at North Charles and 31^st Streets, three miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  For general Museum information, call 443-573-1700 or visit www.artbma.org