Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro’s art piece in the Pushkin Museum. Photo by Camille Pissarro-Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro’s artistic character traits: his major topics, artistic targets, and sources of motivation included the ground he walked on, the air whose density changed everything, and the light whose severity impacted perception of color. Pure colors, dense separate brushstrokes, a series of paintings formed at varying periods of the day – Pissarro has remained true to the technical discoveries of the Impressionist style all across his entire career.

Aside from spiritual and emotional monitoring, his personal talent was the power to “comprehend the essence of the place.” He was a land artist. He painted in a rural garden near Paris, on the side of a dusty road, on a busy city street, and even in the middle of a frozen field, as if his pulse adjusted based on where he went.

1.Pissarro was born on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas

St. Thomas is a lovely island in the southern Caribbean that is now a part of the United States. St. Thomas was a Dutch region when Pissarro was born on July 10, 1830.

His father was a Frenchman of Portuguese Jewish descent who had come to the island to settle his late uncle’s affairs. In an unusual turn of events, Pissarro’s father married his uncle’s widow, and because the marriage was unsurprisingly contentious, Pissarro spent his childhood as an outsider, distanced from the majority of the St. Thomas community.

Pissarro was sent to a French boarding school when he was 12 years old, where he developed a deep appreciation for French art. He returned to St. Thomas at the age of 17, sketching and painting the naturally beautiful scenery the island had to to provide whenever he could.

Pissarro met Danish artist Fritz Melbye, who was living on St. Thomas at the time, when he was 21. Melbye became Pissarro’s teacher, mentor and friend. They moved to Venezuela for two years to work as artists.

Pissarro returned to Paris in 1855 to work as an assistant to Melbye’s brother, Anton Melbye.

Pissarro’s fascinating childhood, as well as the scenery of the Caribbean, undoubtedly shaped him into the Expressionistic landscape painter he would become.

2.He was the leader of a group of painters

In the year 1873, he established a collective society of 15 aspiring artists. Pissarro was the real mastermind in keeping this group together and encouraging all of its members.

John Rewald, an art historian, also named him the dean of Impressionist painters. Pissarro’s kindhearted and stable personality earned him the title.

As the ordinary man was the emphasis of his artistic representations, his work was frequently regarded as revolutionary. Pissarro always desired painting individuals in natural settings without any mimicry.

Camille Pissarro was the only artist to have his work displayed in all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions. It was on showcase from 1874 to 1886.

In addition to being Impressionists’ role model, he was also the role model of the Post-Impressionists, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin.

3.Camille’s time in London was very important to his career

A portrait of Camille Pissarro. Photo by Camille Pissarro- Wikimedia commons

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 forced Pissarro to flee his home in September 1870; when he went back in June 1871, he discovered that the house, and several of his early paintings, had been damaged by Prussian soldiers. By December 1870, he and his family had fled to London and established themselves in Crystal Palace, southwest London.

Pissarro’s paintings from this period depict Sydenham and Norwood at a time when they were only recently linked by railways. One of the biggest of these paintings, in the National Gallery of London’s collection, is a view of St. Bartholomew’s Church at Lawrie Park Avenue, also recognized as The Avenue, Sydenham.

While in Upper Norwood, Pissarro met art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who purchased two of his ‘London’ paintings. Durand-Ruel went on to become the most famous art dealer of the new French Impressionist school.

After returning to France, Pissarro decided to visit England again in 1890, painting ten landscapes in central London. He returned in 1892, painting in Kew Gardens and Kew Green, and again in 1897, producing numerous oils of Bedford Park in Chiswick.

4.Camille Pissarro was a painter of Impressionism

Camille Pissarro, as previously stated, was an Impressionist painter. Pissarro relocated to Paris when he was 25 years old, intending to live and work as an artist there. Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, two of the very first Impressionist painters, taught him. He attended the same school as Monet and Paul Cézanne. Pissarro was the group’s oldest member, and the other painters looked up to him.

Pissarro is the first and only Impressionist painter whose work has appeared in all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions from 1874 to 1886.

5.The Impressionist years of Camille Pissarro

When Pissarro went back to his home in France after the war, he found that only 40 of the 1,500 paintings he had completed over the previous 20 years and had been compelled to leave behind when he relocated to London remained. The soldiers had ruined or destroyed the rest, which they frequently used as floor mats outside in the mud to keep their boots clean. All those lost are thought to have been done in the Impressionist style he was evolving at the time, thus also “documenting the birth of Impressionism.”

A writer called Pissarro “essentially the creator of this [Impressionist] painting,” but his position in the Impressionist movement was “less that of the wonderful person of concepts than that of the good counselor and appeaser…” “Monet… could be regarded as a guiding force.”

He quickly reconnected with the other Impressionist artists from his previous group, such as Cézanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir and Degas. Pissarro now voiced to the group his desire for a substitute to the Salon where their group could exhibit their own distinct styles.

6.Pissarro’s marriage and all his children

Paysage a Eragny by Camille Pissarro. Photo by Adrian Scottow- Wikimedia commons

In 1871, he married Julie Vellay, the vineyard grower’s daughter. He had seven children with her. They are from Pontoise. They later settled in Louveciennes. Several of Pissarro’s paintings were influenced by these locations, project includes scenes of rivers, village life, people at work and so on.

7.Due to health concerns, he was obligated to paint indoors in his later years

Unfortunately, Pissarro got many eye issues in his old age. He couldn’t paint outside any longer, so he moved into a Parisian hotel to paint the city area illustrated in the Boulevard Montmartre series. Even though it must have been challenging for the artist, his skill shines through despite the fact that he was required to stay indoors to work on his art.

8.Camille Pissarro’s best known works of art

The Pontoise Hermitage

It is yet another well-known painting. This depicts the Pontoise village path and a cluster of houses. The artist lived in this location and chose a rural setting. It is considered one of his masterpieces.

A Winter Morning on the Boulevard Montmartre

In Paris, he worked on the boulevards series. In early 1897, he investigated the view from the Grand Hôtel de Russie and discovered that he could see the entire length of boulevards as well as large trees, large houses, omnibuses and carriages.

Nighttime on the Boulevard Montmartre

It depicts the Boulevard at night, including the lights on the wet and dark street.

9.The legacy Pissarro left behind for other artists

Camille Pissarro was regarded as an exceptional artist among his contemporaries by reviewers. Armand Silvestre described him as the most genuine and naive member. Diane Kelder, a historian, defined his later works as having the integrity, truthfulness and durability that differentiated him as a person. Mary Cassatt, a former Imperialist, defined Pissarro as someone who could teach “the stone to draw.” Though Pissarro sold few of his works during his lifetime, his works have sold for millions of dollars at auctions after his death.

10.His last years in retirement and his unfortunate death

Apple Harvest by Camille Pissarro. Photo by Camille Pissarro – Wikimedia commons

By the 1880s, Pissarro had transitioned into a Post-Impressionist style, revisiting some of his earlier ideas and exploring new technics such as pointillism. He also made new friends with artists such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, and he was a fan of Vincent van Gogh from the start. While consistent with his lifelong interest in advancements, Pissarro’s departure from Impressionism led to the overall decrease of the movement, which he had largely defined.

Pissarro struggled from a fairly regular eye infection in his later years, which stopped him from working outside for much of the year. As a result of his impairment, he frequently painted while looking out a hotel room window. Pissarro died on November 13, 1903, in Paris and was laid to rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery.