Camille Pissarro Biography

(born July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies—died November 13, 1903, Paris, France) painter and printmaker who was a key figure in the history of Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist to show his work in all eight Impressionist group exhibitions; throughout his career he remained dedicated to the idea of such alternative forums of exhibition. He experimented with many styles, including a period when he adopted Georges Seurat's “pointillist” approach. A supportive friend and mentor to influential artists such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, he was described by many who knew him as “Father Pissarro.”

Childhood

Pissarro was the third son of a Jewish merchant of French, originally Portuguese, descent. His family lived above their shop on Charlotte Amalie, the main street of St. Thomas. When Camille was 12 years old, his parents sent him away to a school in Passy, near Paris. The young Pissarro showed an early talent for drawing, and he began to visit the collections of the Louvre.

At age 17 he returned to St. Thomas, where his father expected him to enter the family business. Pissarro was more interested in sketching at the harbour, however, and, after meeting the visiting Danish painter Fritz Melbye, he sailed with the older artist to Venezuela in November 1852. Later, Pissarro said he had “abandoned all I had and bolted to Caracas to get clear of the bondage of bourgeois life.” While in Caracas, Pissarro made many sketches of life on the streets. He returned to St. Thomas in August 1854. This time his parents finally realized that no amount of argument would change their son's determination to be a painter, and so in the fall of 1855 he left home for the last time, bound for Paris.

Early career

Pissarro arrived in time to see the contemporary art on display at Paris's Universal Exposition, where he was strongly attracted to the paintings of Camille Corot. He began to attend private classes at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1856, and in 1861 he registered as a copyist at the Louvre. He also attended the Académie Suisse, a “free studio,” where he met future Impressionists Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin. Through Monet, he also met Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley.