Camille Pissarro ( * 1830 † 1903 )

Artist Camille Pissarro

Experience the evocative world of Camille Pissarro – one of the great pioneers of Impressionism! With a keen sense for light, nature, and the everyday, he created landscapes and cityscapes rich in atmosphere and color poetry. Discover his works as high-quality art prints, stylishly framed canvas paintings, or artistically hand-painted artworks in customizable sizes!

Camille Pissarro Self-Portrait

Camille Pissarro was born on July 10, 1830, on the present-day U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. At that time, the area was part of the Danish colony. Pissarro's mother was from the Dominican Republic and had Spanish ancestry. His father's family originally came from Portugal. Pissarro's father saw him as the successor to his hardware business, but Pissarro preferred to spend his free time painting. He would sit at the harbor whenever he could, drawing and making his first connections with other artists. The Danish painter Fritz Melbye recognized his talent and encouraged him to remain committed to painting, against his father's wishes.

Pissarro went to Paris and studied at various art schools. Influenced by the works of Corot and Courbet, Pissarro became a key figure in the Impressionist movement and was the only artist to be featured in all eight Impressionist exhibitions. 

In his paintings, he captured both rural life and urban scenes with a particular sensitivity to light, atmosphere, and the everyday. He was an empathetic teacher and mentor, particularly to Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat, and was respected by many younger artists.

Pissarro is one of the most significant painters of Impressionism and developed his style over his life into Pointillism. He painted primarily with pure, unmixed complementary colors, which he orchestrated in increasingly shorter brushstrokes. Unlike Impressionism, Pointillism is characterized by a blending of pure colors to achieve overall harmony.

In the last years of his life, Pissarro returned to the looser brushwork of Impressionism, yet his works remained dynamic—marked by his quest for new forms of expression. Despite health setbacks that sometimes prevented him from painting outdoors, he remained artistically active until his death, creating numerous significant works. Camille Pissarro died on November 12, 1903, at the age of 73 in Paris.

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