Jean-Pierre Cassigneul: Moments of Splendour | Stern Pissarro Gallery
That Camille Pissarro lived in Croydon is one of my favourite weird art historical facts. It’s just such an odd thought! But yes, one of the fathers of Impressionism crossed the channel at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in the 1870s. He lived in what was then the village of Norwood for a couple of years, and recorded the bucolic scenes that surrounded him. Country landscapes as yet untouched by the suburban sprawl of future decades.
The Pissarro family still maintains a London base: I stumbled across it on a summer Saturday in Mayfair. This gallery was opened by the artist’s great-granddaughter in 1964 and is apparently going strong. Stern Pissarro’s latest exhibition is from Jean-Pierre Cassigneul, a portraitist with a tendency towards nostalgia, whose compositions would barely trouble the nineteenth century eye.
Aude (2015)
I didn’t spend long with Cassigneul’s bored-looking female subjects, with their fancy hats, their blocky necks and fingers. The example above sums them up. I spent more time in the gallery’s basement, in which you’re greeted by a framed Pissarro family tree, revealing close to a dozen artistic descendents of the great man. They have wildly varying outputs, from impressionistic retreads (son-in-law Lucien) to full on abstraction (great-granddaughter Lélia, who opened the gallery).
What an odd space. But what’s this on the wall? A very charming sketch of village life at Aubers-sur-Oise, lively and sure, dashed off on a whim, effortlessly suggesting local characters in a few pencil strokes. I didn’t need to check who it was by.
Jean-Pierre Cassigneul: Moments of Splendour is at Stern Pissarro Gallery (London). 02 July - 17 Aug 2024