Pissarro, Camille

one to his doctor, the art collector Georges de Bellio, asking if he could send him some homoeopathic medicines for his suffering wife, expecting their fifth child (Ludovic Rodolph), 2 pages, large 8vo (20.7 x 13.4cm.), Pontoise, 1 October 1878; the other to his friend, the painter [Maximilien] Luce, informing him about the aggravation of his eye disease, announcing his upcoming surgery, performed by his Parisian ophthalmologist [D. Parenteau] in July [1891]; with a blue pencil sketch-drawing on the back, showing a landscape and an unidentified sculpture, 1 page, 8vo (18 x 11.4cm.), Eragny par Gisors, Eure, 14 June [1891]

Correspondance de Camille Pissarro, edited by Janine Bailly-Herzberg (Presses universitaires de France, 1980-1991)

Since 1888, Pissarro had been suffering intermittently from the eye disorder dacryocystitis, so that he had been obliged to wear a metal construction over his eye to protect it and hold the bandage in place. He continued to have an occasional abscess, which forced him to undergo some eye surgeries in Paris. The homoeopathic physician, Dor Daniel Parenteau, who worked at the Hospital St. Jacques in Paris, was his ophthalmologist.

Pissarro was an ardent believer in the virtues of homeopathic medicine. He had a special interest in homoeopathy that started shortly after his father’s death in 1865. Pissarro even became a lay prescriber of homeopathic medicines himself. He consulted homeopath Paul Ferdinand Gachet in Auvers sur Oise, David MacNish in London, Léon Simon and Georges de Bellio in Paris. The latter was a Romanian amateur practitioner and a passionate collector of works by the Impressionists. From time to time he made timely purchases of works by Pissarro as well as providing medicine and advice. By the end of the 1880s Pissarro's family was absolutely indigent: Pissarro's fifth child was born a few months after the death of their benefactor, the painter Ludovic Piette, in 1878.