Camille Pissarro

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Camille Pissarro (July 10 1830 – November 13 1903) was a French Impressionist painter who was called the "Father of Impressionism" for his pioneering efforts in Impression, his patriarchial relationship to younger painters, and his contribution to the formation of the genre's style, practices, and exhibition policies. Pissarro was the only Impressionist to show his work at all eight Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886.


David, please note - his name is spelled both ways: Pissaro and Pissarro. E

Biography

Jacob-Abraham-Camille Pissarro[1] was born in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, to Abraham Gabriel Pissarro, a Portuguese Sephardic Jew, and Rachel Manzana-Pomié, from the Dominican Republic. Pissarro lived in St. Thomas until age 12, when he went to a boarding school in Paris. He returned to St. Thomas where he drew in his free time. Pissarro was attracted to political anarchy, an attraction that may have originated during his years in St. Thomas.

In 1852, he travelled to Venezuela with the Danish artist Fritz Melbye. In 1855, Pissarro left for Paris, where he studied at various academic institutions (including the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Suisse) and under a succession of masters, such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, and Charles-François Daubigny. Corot is sometimes considered Pissarro's most important early influence; Pissarro listed himself as Corot’s pupil in the catalogues to the 1864 and 1865 Paris Salons.[2]

While residing in London, Pissarro lived at Westow Hill and Palace Road, Upper Norwood 1870-1. He painted local views including the new Dulwich College, Lordship Lane Station and St Stephen's Church. In 1890 he returned to England and painted some ten scenes of central London. He came back again in 1892, painting in Kew Gardens and Kew Green, and also in 1897, when he produced several oils of Bedford Park, Chiswick. For more details of his British visits, see Nicholas Reed, "Camille Pissarro at Crystal Palace" and "Pissarro in West London," published by Lilburne Press.

In March 1893, Paris Gallery Durand-Ruel organized a major exhibition of 46 of Pissarro's works along with 55 others by Antonio de La Gandara. While the critics acclaimed Gandara, their appraisal of Pissarro's art was less enthusiastic.

Pissarro married Julie Vellay, a maid in his mother's household. Of their eight children, one died at birth and one daughter died aged nine. The surviving children all painted, and Lucien, the oldest son, became a follower of William Morris. Camille Pissarro: Lettres à son fils Lucien, 1943 edited by Art historian John Rewald reveals insights into the life of an artist, for both father and son.

Pissarro died in Éragny-sur-Epte on either November 12, 1903 and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Style and themes

The garden of Pontoise, painted 1875.

Pissarro painted rural and urban French life, particularly landscapes in and around Pontoise, as well as scenes from Montmartre. His mature work displays an empathy for peasants and laborers, and sometimes evidences his radical political leanings. His finest early works (See Jalais Hill, Pontoise, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) are characterized by a broadly painted (sometimes with palette knife) naturalism derived from the influence of Courbet, but with an incipient Impressionist palette.????

Technique

In 1897 while working on a series of urban scenes in Paris, Pissarro gave the young painter Louis Le Bail the following advice:

"The motif should be observed more for shapes and colors than for drawing. Precise drawing is dry and hampers the impression of the whole; it destroys all sensations. Do not insist on the outlines of objects, it is the brushstroke of the right value and color which should produce the drawing. - Don't work bit by bit, but paint everything at once by placing tones everywhere... The eye should not be fixed on a particular point but should take in everything, while simultaneously observing the reflections that the colors produce on their surroundings. Keep everything going on an equal basis; use small brushstrokes and try to put down your perceptions immediately. Do not proceed according to rules and principles, but paint what you observe and feel."

From 1885-1890 Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas. Discontented with what he referred to as "romantic Impressionism," he investigated Pointillism which he called "scientific Impressionism" before returning to a purer Impressionism in the last decade of his life.

Legacy

He was a mentor to Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin and his example inspired many younger artists, including Californian Impressionist Lucy Bacon.

Pissarro's influence on his fellow Impressionists is probably still underestimated; not only did he offer substantial contributions to Impressionist theory, but he also managed to remain on friendly, mutually respectful terms with such difficult personalities as Edgar Degas, Cézanne and Gauguin. Pissarro exhibited at all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions. Moreover, whereas Monet was the most prolific and emblematic practitioner of the Impressionist style, Pissarro was nonetheless a primary developer of Impressionist technique.

During his lifetime, Camille Pissarro sold few of his paintings. By 2005, however, some of his works were selling for over U.S. $4 million.


Pissarro's Palette with a Landscape, c. 1878.

Camillé's great-grandson, Joachim Pissarro, is currently the Head Curator of Drawing and Painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. His great-granddaughter, Lelia, is a successful painter and resides in London.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Rewald, John. The John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington. ISBN 0894680668
  • Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages Harcourt Brace, 1996. ISBN 0155011413
  • "Camille (Jacob) Pissarro." International Dictionary of Art and Artists. St. James Press, 1990. Reproducedin Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomason Gale. 2007.
  • "Camille Pissarro." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.

Notes

  1. Wold Eiermann, "Camille Pissarro 1830 – 1903," in Christoph Becker, Camille Picasso (Hatje Cantz: Ostfildern-Ruit, 1999), 1.
  2. http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Pissarro Pissarro Exhibition PowerPoint with sound

External links

Template:Impressionists

Credits

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