Camille Pissarro
Born: St Thomas, West Indies 1830.
Died: Paris, France 1903.
In order to achieve his ambition of becoming an artist, Camille Pissarro moved to Paris at the age if twenty-four. Here he worked under Corot, who advised him to paint directly from nature and to, “… study light and tonal values.” Despite earning praise for his early landscapes, Pissarro was poverty-stricken and made his living painting fans and blinds. From the late 1860s he was a leading impressionist – he helped organize all eight Impressionist exhibitions and was the only one to participate in them all. He and Monet were both in London during the Franco-Prussian War, the two men admiring the work of Constable and Turner. From 1872 until 1884 Pissarro lived at Pontoise, working directly on out-of-doors paintings. In his painting, The vegetable garden with trees in blossom, he successfully evokes the atmosphere of a soft spring afternoon, achieving great luminosity through small dabs of pure colour. Pissarro influenced Cezanne, who worked with him at Pontoise during 1872-1877. Never seen as the most influential of the Impressionists, Pissarro was nonetheless described as, “the most naturalist of them all. He sees nature and simplifies it through its most permanent aspects.” Gradually his eyesight failed and he died blind in 1903.
Masterpieces:
- Lower Norwood, London
- Place du Theatre Francais.
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About camille pissarro
Camille Pissarro: Impressions of City and Country
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Camille Pissarro
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Camille Pissarro:
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