Pissarro, Camille

(1830-1903)

   painter, lithographer

   Camille Pissarro, an impressionist painter, was born in Saint-Thomas, Antilles, and settled in Paris in 1855. He began a career in business but left to become an artist. He worked with camille corot, who gave him much early advice, and was influenced also by the realism of gustave couRBET.In 1857, at the Académie Suisse, he befriended claude MONET, PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR, and PAUL CÉZANNE, and with them attended the gatherings of the future impressionists. In England (1870), he was greatly impressed by the works of John Constable and Joseph Turner, and his own style became more airy and clearer, approximating that of Monet. Pissarro later painted at Louveciennes, then at Pontoise, notably with Cézanne, from 1872 to 1874. He sought also to capture the scintillating play of sunlight (Les Toits rouges, 1877). Around 1885, he adopted the pointillist technique of georges seurat, then evolved to a more systematic style. After 1890, Pissarro painted numerous overviews of the streets of Paris and Rouen. Having an open and generous nature, Pissarro was an ardent spokesperson and active moving spirit of impressionism, and thanks to him, paul Gauguin, paul SIGNAC, Mary Cassatt, and georges seurat were able to show with the impressionists.