by Christine Zibas

Created on: October 23, 2009   Last Updated: January 19, 2011

Considered the father figure of the Impressionist movement (and the only Impressionist to have exhibited in all of their exhibitions), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) never let his work be defined. In later years, he would embrace the world of Seurat and Pointillism as the natural development of Impressionism. His would also be a lasting influence on artists Van Gogh, Gaugin, and Cezanne.

Life in the Virgin Islands and Transition to Paris

Although many think of Pissarro as a French Impressionist, he was actually born on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to a Portuguese father and a mother who was a Creole from the Dominican Republic. It was not until 1855 that he traveled to Paris to pursue his life of art, where he was a pupil of Corot and Courbet. In 1857 he was encouraged by Corot to abandon his traditional painting style, and take his work to the open air. His earliest works echo the style of Courbet, there was always an underlying Impressionist spirit to them.

Life Among the Impressionists

Perhaps because of his more unusual background, Pissarro was always a bit of an outsider from the group. At the same time, he was a vigorous champion of the radical painting style, sometimes to the detriment of his own painting style and sense of expression.

Franco-Prussian War

Like many of the other Impressionists (including Monet), at the start of the war, Pissarro fled the French countryside and his home in Louveciennes for the safety of London. (As a result, many of his early works would be destroyed by the invading Prussian soldiers.) While in London, he came under the influence of the English landscape tradition expressed by painters Turner and Constable. Although he returned to rejoin his artistic circle in France, he would make several more trips back to England, where he would paint scenes of Kew Gardens, as well as other British locations.

Love of Nature and His Work

More than any other feature, the paintings of Camille Pissarro speak to his love of nature and simplicity. Although he strayed in and out of an Impressionistic style, his subject matter continuously focused on rural landscapes and peasants. Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes (1872) is classic Pissarro, with its dirt pathway leading the viewer's eye through the bright blossoming trees to the far distance. Like the other Impressionists, it speaks to the nature of sunlight in the open air, and the simple pleasures of nature, balancing its freedom with exhilaration.

So too, is the beauty and simplicity of nature

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