in-arts.net
Pissaro
French Impressionist painter. Pissarro's father, a .Frenchman of Portuguese-
Jewish descent, directed a trading concession in one of the Virgin Islands (at that
time called the Danish West Indies). As a young man Pissarro was sent to study
business in Paris, but he was far more interested in sketching than in commerce.
Upon his return to the West Indies, his father finally recognized his creative abilities
and allowed Camille to return to Paris. When he arrived there in 1855, Pissarro
began to frequent the museums. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and then
at the Academie Suisse, where he met Claude Monet. Pissarro became an
enthmiastic admirer of Eugene Delacroix', paintings, and took lessons from
Jean-Baptiste Camille Carot, who, xerted a strong influence on his painting.
Pissarro exhibited at the Salon Refuses in 1863 with Johan Bartholc,J ongkind,
Edouard Manet, and Paul Cezanne, and joined battle with themrigainst the officially
sponsored arcade, '
In 1870, at ,he outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he fled to London, where he
found his friend Monet. He also became friendly with the art dealer Paul
Durand-Ruel, who later supported the Impressionists and became his patron and
dealer. Pissarro returned to France in June 1871 only to discover that the
Ger¬mans had looted his studio at Louveciennes, near Paris, and had destroyed all
but 40 of the 1,500 canvases he had left there. T the most unstable and
In 1890 he also achieved a certain degree of financial success; unfortunately,
Pissarro, now sixty years old, began to have trouble with his eyes and was no
longer able to paint in the open air. He spent the winters in a Paris hotel or
apartment. There, looking out of the window, he painted views of Rue St-Lazare,
the Tuileries, Avenue de l'Opera, as well as the main boule¬vards, all rendered by
aerial perspective (Boulevard Montmartre, Night,
He captured the city's sooty atmosphere and swarming crowds with the same
qualities of observation and style that he had displayed in his earlier studies of
peasants and country landscapes. In spite of his weak eyes, he traveled to London,
Rouen, Dieppe, Moret, Le Havre and Eragny , where he was delighted to discover
his favorite themes of flowering orchards, rustic dwellings, and farm laborers (La
NIere Larcheveque, I880, ; Washerwoman at Eragny, I893, River Banks, Rouen,
I883, Orchard, I879, Woman in an Orchard, I897,
Medival
Rannaissnce
13-14th century
14-15th cenury
15-16th century
16-17th century
17-18th century
18-19th century
Impressionism
Post Impressionism
Early 20th century