Camille Pissaro

Background

Camille Pissarro was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, on July 10, 1830. His father, a Portuguese Jew, ran a general store.

Education

Pissarro attended school in Paris and demonstrated an exceptional talent for drawing. In 1855 - 1865 Pissarro received some academic training at the École des Beaux-Arts, but he spent most of his time at the Académie Suisse, where free classes were offered. This was an important gathering place for those artists whose ambitions and sensibilities lay outside the teaching of the official schools, for it offered greater opportunity to discuss and develop personal ideas about painting and art in general.

Career

In St. Thomas in 1847 to work in the family business. His interest in art persisted, and in 1855 his parents finally yielded to his ambition to become a painter. Pissarro reached Paris in time to see the important World's Fair of 1855. He was particularly impressed by the landscapes of Camille Corot and other members of the Barbizon group, who had taken the first steps toward working directly from nature, and by the ambitious and forthright realism of Gustave Courbet, although his own work increasingly gravitated toward landscape rather than figurative subjects. In this setting Pissarro became friends with Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cézanne, who were seeking alternatives to the established methods of painting. Pissarro's works at this time were occasionally, though by no means consistently, accepted at the annual Salons. More importantly, however, he received critical backing and encouragement from Émile Zola. During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871 Pissarro and Monet went to London, where they were impressed by the landscape paintings of John Constable and J. M. W. Turner. By this time Pissarro and Monet had begun to work directly from nature and to develop the unique style that would later be called impressionism. In their pursuit of this new and revolutionary direction, the lessons of the earlier English landscapists provided crucial and much-needed support, particularly in terms of the loose handling of paint, the abstractness, and the strong response to nature which characterized their own paintings. When Pissarro returned to his home at Louveciennes near Paris, he found that the Prussians had destroyed nearly all of his paintings. By the early 18706 the work of Pissarro and his colleagues had been rejected by the Salon on repeated occasions. In 1874 they held their own exhibition, a show of "independent" artists. This was the first impressionist exhibition (the term "impressionist, " originally used derisively, was actually coined by a newspaper critic). There were seven similar exhibitions until 1886, and Pissarro was the only artist who participated in all eight. The artist died on November 12, 1903 in Paris. He was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

Achievements

• In 1892 there was a large retrospective of Pissarro's work, and he finally gained the international recognition he deserved. Characteristic paintings are Path through the Fields (1879), Landscape, Eragny (1895), and Place du Théâtre Français (1898). He died in Paris on Nov. 12, 1903.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Camille Pissarro: Letters to His Son, Lucien

    (Pissarro's weekly letters to his son Lucien, covering the...)

  • Camille Pissarro: 155 Masterpieces (Annotated Masterpieces) (Volume 19)

    (This Art Book with Foreword and annotated reproductions b...)

  • Camille Pissarro - The Paintings Vol 2 (Zedign Art Series)

    (The works of Danish-French Impressionist & Neo-Impression...)

  • Camille Pissarro - The Paintings Vol 3 (Zedign Art Series)

    (The works of Danish-French Impressionist & Neo-Impression...)

  • Camille Pissarro - The Paintings Vol 4 (Zedign Art Series)

    (The works of Danish-French Impressionist & Neo-Impression...)

  • Camille Pissarro - The Paintings Vol 1 (Zedign Art Series)

    (The works of Danish-French Impressionist & Neo-Impression...)

Views

Quotations: "Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. "

"I think when one has talent one finally breaks through; so don't pass up any opportunity to do some work. "

"Everything is beautiful, all that matters is to be able to interpret. "

"Work at the same time on sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on an equal basis. .. Don't be afraid of putting on colour. .. Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression. "

"Painting, art in general, enchants me. It is my life. What else matters? When you put all your soul into a work, all that is noble in you, you cannot fail to find a kindred soul who understands you, and you do not need a host of such spirits. Is not that all an artist should wish for?"

"It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character. "

"All the sorrow, all the bitterness, all the sadness, I forget them and ignore them in the joy of working. "

"When you do a thing with your whole soul and everything that is noble within you, you always find your counterpart. "

Personality

He was the patriarch and teacher of the movement, constantly advising younger artists, introducing them to one another, and encouraging them to join the revolutionary trend that he helped to originate. In the last years of his life, Camille Pissarro's eyesight noticeably deteriorated. Despite this, he continued to work and created a series of views of Paris, filled with magnificent artistic emotions. Unusual foreshortening of these paintings is due to the fact that the artist wrote them not in the street, but from hotel rooms. This series has become one of the highest achievements of Impressionism in the transmission of light and atmospheric effects and in many ways it is a well-known symbol.

Connections

During his studies at the Academy he had a novel with the maid of his parents - Julie Wellley. But to formalize their relations they could only in 10 years. Pissarro's family had eight children. Two of them - Georges and Lucien - became artists.

Father:

Frederick Pissarro

Mother:

Rachel Petit Pissarro

Wife:

Julie Wellley

2 October 1838 - 16 May 1926

Daughter:

Lucien Pissarro

Son:

Paul-Emile Pissarro

Son:

Georges Henri Manzana Pissarro

Son:

Félix Pissarro

Son:

Ludovic Rodo Pissarro

Friend:

Claude Monet

References

• Pissarro
• Camille Pissarro
• Camille Pissarro (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
• Camille Pissarro: Impressions of City and Country