Anarchy Man!

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The Anarchist Encyclopedia:
A Gallery of Saints & Sinners ...

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Pissarro
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Camille Pissarro, (1830-1903)

French impressionist painter, anarchist, contributor to the magazine "Temps Nouveaux".


Associated with the anarchist magazine "Temps Nouveaux", as were Paul Signac, Aristide Delannoy, Maximilien Luce, Alexandre Steinlen, Theo van Rysselberghe, Van Dongen, George Willaume, etc.

"The writers & painters who professed extremist views were anarchists with all the altruism of their hearts, the purity of their souls, & the elegance of their demeanors. In the theories of anarchism they found many elements that corresponded to their own yearnings: an ultra-radical individualism, love of liberty, pity for the disinherited, passionate solidarity, & glorification of humanity. Some, like Pissarro, who had studied Marx as well as Peter Kropotkin, reasoned that 'the movement of ideas in present society tends with extraordinary energy towards the elaboration of new philosophical & scientific systems destined to become law in societies of the future.' Others explained in more sentimental terms why they were anarchists. Signac, for instance, listed among the reasons for his convictions 'the sufferings of many; logic; kindness; honesty; physiological laws (the rights of the stomach, of the brain, of the eyes, etc.); the need to feel happiness around oneself.'

"Those who more or less openly manifested their sympathy for the anarchist movement were Pissarro & his sons, Signac, Seurat, & Luce among the painters; Kahn, Tailhade, Régnier, Adam, de Gourmont, Merrill, Viélé-Griffin, Mauclair, & even Mallarmé among the poets; Fénéon, Mirbeau, Alexandre, & Geffroy among the critics, as well as many of their friends."

--- John Rewald, Post Impressionism, p. 155

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