Rue Damiette, Rouen (c. 1884) by Camille Pissarro by Studio POPPY

Pissarro was born on Saint Thomas, an island of the Virgin Islands, which was a Danish colony until 1917. He retained Danish nationality throughout his life. His father was a prosperous merchant. The family, originally French and Jewish, had settled on St. Thomas some years before his birth.

Pissarro attended a boarding school near Paris. On his return to St. Thomas, he showed no interest in the family business. He spent his time painting the picturesque harbour. In 1852, Pissarro left for Venezuela, where he worked as a painter for two years. In 1855 he settled in France.
On the advice of Camille Corot, whose landscapes he admired, he started painting in towns and villages around Paris. He made friends with Ludovic Piette, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and other Impressionists. In 1874 he took part in the First Exhibition of the Impressionists.
Always looking for new forms, Pissarro became one of the most innovative of the Impressionists. He was one of the first to divide the colours, as in his work The Garden of the Mathurins, Pontoise, 1876, in which the sunlit path consists of blue, white, yellow and pink brushstrokes (pointillism). Pissarro was also an excellent draftsman; a large collection of his drawings is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Pissarro and Monet, during a stay in England (1870-1871), were strongly influenced by the works of Turner and Constable. This is how they arrived at a completely impressionistic light painting. Pissarro was the only one to participate in all eight Impressionist exhibitions.

In the 1880s he joined a younger generation of artists, including Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and his own son Lucien. In the 1890s he abandoned this neo-impressionism. He then preferred a smoother style, which better enabled him to grasp his idea of ​​nature. He also started painting more cityscapes. In his views of Paris, Rouen, Le Havre and Dieppe, he shows the changing effects of light and weather, and the dynamism of the modern city.

Pissarro remained active until his death in 1903 in Paris. He was 73 years old. He left behind a very extensive oeuvre. His more than 800 letters were auctioned in 1975. His son Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944) was strongly influenced by his father in style and choice of subject.