Camille Pissarro

Artist Biography

Camille Pissarro was born in 1830 in the Dutch West Indies to a Jewish father and a Creole mother. Despite the insistence of his father, Pissarro refused to make his career in commerce and left for Paris in 1855 where he entered the Academy Suisse. Initially, he was trained in a conservative style, but by the early 1870s, rejected this training and joined the Impressionist painters.

Of all the Impressionists, Pissarro was unique in his avoidance of river and seascapes, choosing instead to re-create the beauty of the land and cityscape, both structure and activity. He had the ability, like Monet, to capture a specific scene at a particular moment within his art, prints and posters.

In 1885, Pissarro joined the Divisionists, adopting a loosely pointillistic technique. He soon abandoned this technique, however, and returned to painting Impressionistic art, prints and posters. He died in 1903.

Camille Pissarro Art, Prints and Posters Collection