Brown University Library News

A book is, more than most things, a compendium of human values. Some of these appeal to the intellect, some to the emotions, some to the eye, and some even to the sense of touch. One cannot pick up a beautiful book without inhaling this elixir of creative effort, which is at the same time so stimulating and so gratifying to the senses.— Bruce Rogers (1870 – 1957), from a Rowfant Club keepsake, 1954
At their Eragny Press, Lucien and Esther Pissarro choreographed a dance between image and text that presaged Bruce Rogers’s 1954 description of a beautiful book. Eragny books honor texts that are touchstones of the Good Life as the Pissarros understood it; a life lived with respect for one’s self, for others, and for the natural environment. Their books conjure landscapes, evoke love songs and poetry, celebrate the joys of daily life, and re-tell tales from England, France, Belgium, China and the Ancient Near East. Here, for the first time, the authors and subjects of Eragny Press books are analyzed to shed light on the Pissarros’ goals as artists. Esther Bensusan (1870 – 1951) and Lucien Pissarro (1863 – 1944) crossed national boundaries to marry. She was English; he was French. Their marriage and their books merged English Arts and Crafts Movement and French Neo-Impressionist forms and ideals.
The exhibition curated by Alice H. R . H . Beckwith at Brown University’s John Hay Library is enriched by letters from Lucien Pissarro and the fine press books assembled by nineteenth and early twentieth century graduates of Brown, Philip Darrel Sherman and John M. Crawford Jr. The exhibit will run from September 4th – October 26th.