Pissaro

Camille Pissarro was a French impressionist painter who lived from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. He was born on the island of St. Thomas which is now located in the Virgin Islands. He started painting in St. Thomas and when he was 25 he moved to Paris where he studied in several different academic institutions and under many famous artists such as Courbet, Corot, and many others. Corot inspired him to paint the outdoors, which he became famous for; painting outdoor country side impressionist paintings. While in France he became friends with Monet, Cezzane, and Guillaumin; which encouraged him with his paintings (at the time they were a but abstract for the population and rejected). in 1871 he married Jullie Valley; his mother's maid, and had seven children with her. After marrying, they moved to Pontoise; a city outside Paris, in which many of his paintings were inspired by. After living in Pontoise for about a year, he was forced to move to London to escape the Franco-Prussian War. In London he met up with Monet and discussed their new form of painting called Impressionism since it was not doing well. After the war he returned to France but returned to England frequently to paint scenes of Central London. In 1874 Pissarro and his friends from the school in France had their frist Impressionist exhibit which was blasted by critics for being too commonplace and portraying everyday life. Starting around the 1880's Pissarro began experimenting with different types of art and got involved in the Neo-Impressionism movement. He studied with Seurat and Signac learning about different techniques such as pointilism. He soon abandonned Neo-Impressionism claiming it was too artificial, and went back to his original way of painting. He then suffered an eye infection in his older years which prevented him from working unless it was warm outside. Because of this setback, he painted many outdoor scenes from hotel rooms, and on November 13 1903 he died in Paris. Pissarro has left a lasting legacy throughout the art community. He is known by many as the "father of impressionism" and has spread a new form of painting throughout the world.

"Camille Pissaro." //The Artist//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2012. .