Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Assaph - B
Angaben zur Quelle:
5 (2000) 3-28
Keywords:
Pissarro, Camille,
;
Dreyfus, Alfred,
;
Trials (Treason)
;
Jewish art
;
Antisemitism in art
Abstract:
While noting that Pissarro's work was not affected by his Jewish background, stresses that his life helps to understand the dilemma of a Jewish artist in late 19th-century France. His atheism is shown to have reflected his rejection of traditional Judaism (he was the descendant of Portuguese Conversos who returned to Judaism in Bordeaux; the significance of this is explained in detail). His resort to Jewish caricatures at one point in his career is interpreted as a result of his anarchism, which led him to use stereotypes of Jews as capitalists. Like his fellow Jewish anarchist Bernard Lazare, Pissarro did not immediately grasp the antisemitic aspects of the Dreyfus Affair, which overshadowed the last years of their lives (both died in 1903). Between 1895-97 Lazare published works attacking the antisemite Edouard Drumont; these works convinced Pissarro of Dreyfus's innocence. The artist realized that French society was sick. He also suffered personal slights, especially from his rabidly anti-Dreyfusard colleague, Degas.
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