This is the ninth in a series of ARTicles featuring newly restored paintings on display at the freshly renovated Marshalltown Arts & Civic Center (MACC). Each month a different painting will be featured.

In 1958, Bill and Dorothy Fisher gifted Marshalltown an extraordinary legacy; a stunning mid-century modern community center and a world class art collection highlighting the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After 55 years, the community center and collection were both in need of restoration. In 2017, with the full support of the Fisher Family and the Fisher Governor Foundation. Committees were formed to write grants, digitize records, reach out to organizations and individuals for funding, and hire technical experts and consultants.

An on-site evaluation of the collection was completed the day before the EF3 tornado devastated the north side of Marshalltown and the appraisal of the collection was completed in 2018. A total of 44 artworks, (paintings and sculptures) were chosen for restoration.

In July 2020, the Chicago Conservation Center retrieved the identified works. The very next month, the community center, and much of Marshalltown, was decimated by a derecho. Restoration of the art was completed in 2021, and the Fisher Art Museum opened in September 2022.

Currently on display are approximately half of the paintings from the Fisher Art Collection. The others are resting in climate-controlled storage and will be on view in 2025.

Today’s featured artist is Danish-French painter and teacher, Camille Pissarro, whose work, Neige et Givre à Éragny, shimmers like a jewel in the Fisher Art Museum.

Born in 1830 on St. Thomas Island, (then under Danish rule), Camille Pissarro is one of history’s most well-known Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist artists. His father was a French national of Portuguese-Jewish descent, while his mother’s French-Jewish family was from the island.

At age twelve, Pissarro attended boarding school in France where he developed an appreciation of French masters. He received a strong foundation in drawing and painting and was encouraged to draw from nature. Upon return to the island, he worked a variety of other jobs but always returned to painting. As his artistic talents took root, the light and landscape of the island proved an endless source of inspiration.

Pissarro is noted for his firm control of the painting medium and is credited with founding “plein air” (“out of door”) painting in 1855; a technique widely embraced by those who would be known as the Impressionists.

Recognizing and legitimizing new trends that even his peers questioned, Pissarro was also a visionary. Among the first established artists to comprehend the genius of Cezanne, Gaugin, Van Gogh, and Rousseau, he was unflappable in his support and promotion of these then unknown painters.

Among the avant-garde Impressionists, Pissarro was as admired for his talent as for his characteristic gentle nature, described by many as an inspiration and a source of encouragement and support. Paul Cezanne referred to him as “humble and colossal,” and Mary Cassatt stated he was a gifted teacher who “could have taught stones to draw.”

At age 54, Pissarro began to work in the Neo-Impressionist style, befriending Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in the process. It is fitting that his and Signac’s work now both hang in the Fisher Art Museum.

Like other master works currently at the MACC, Pissarro’s 1895 oil painting on canvas, Neige et Givre à Éragny, was recently restored and now glistens within the museum. The ornate frame which embraces the scene, was likewise restored, and literally sparkles with its new, expertly applied gold leaf.

In old age, Camille Pissarro suffered from a recurring eye infection which significantly hampered his ability to work outside. But ever captivated by nature, he never stopped painting outdoor scenes. And at the end of his life, did so from behind a window of his room. Camille Pissarro died in 1903 of sepsis.

Start your New Year off with a joy-filled bang by spending time at the Fisher Art Museum. Whatever the weather, Pissarro’s snow scene will warm your heart. Call 641.758.3005 or visit www.maccia.org for more information.

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Nancy Jeanne Adams is a member of the

Fisher Art Museum Committee.