Camille Pissarro

1830 — 1903

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) was a Danish-French painter born on the island of Saint Thomas in the Danish West Indies, now part of the US Virgin Islands. He settled in France and studied informally with Corot, favouring painting out of doors. Pissarro was the oldest of the Impressionist circle and the only artist to show at all eight Impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. He painted rural life and village landscapes around Louveciennes and Pontoise, later turning to views of Paris streets and gardens, including Le Boulevard de Montmartre and The Garden of the Tuileries. Around 1885 he experimented with Neo-Impressionist technique under the influence of Seurat, before returning to his earlier manner. Younger painters such as Cézanne and Gauguin learned from him, and he was known affectionately as Père Pissarro. He had seven children, six of whom became painters. He sold few pictures for much of his life and died in Paris in 1903.