Camille Pissarro: Cézanne Called Him ‘God the Father’ – Mentor to the Masters

Danish-French Impressionist and Father of Modern Art (1830-1903)

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Caribbean Origins of Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro was born Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro on July 10, 1830, on the island of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands). Camille Pissarro’s father, Abraham Gabriel Pissarro, was a Portuguese Sephardic Jew who had come to the island as a merchant. Camille Pissarro’s mother, Rachel Manzano-Pomié, came from a French-Jewish family already established in St. Thomas. This mixed heritage—Caribbean, Jewish, French, and Portuguese—would give Camille Pissarro a unique perspective as a perpetual outsider, even after he became central to the Parisian art world.

At age twelve, Camille Pissarro’s parents sent him to boarding school near Paris, where he first discovered his passion for art through visits to the Louvre. The young Camille Pissarro returned to St. Thomas at seventeen, expected to enter the family mercantile business, but he spent his time sketching rather than learning commerce. Camille Pissarro later described his decision to pursue art as escaping “the bondage of bourgeois life.”

In 1852, Camille Pissarro made a pivotal decision—he abandoned the family business and traveled to Venezuela with Danish painter Fritz Melbye. For two years, Camille Pissarro sketched and painted in Caracas, developing his skills while living the bohemian artist’s life he craved. In 1855, Camille Pissarro relocated permanently to Paris, determined to become a professional painter.

“He was a father to me. A man to consult about matters as if he were God the Father.”

Paul Cézanne on Camille Pissarro

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Artistic Development of Camille Pissarro

In Paris, Camille Pissarro studied at the Académie Suisse, where he met future Impressionists Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and the younger Paul Cézanne. Camille Pissarro also studied under Camille Corot, whose landscapes influenced his early style. The mentorship of Corot taught Camille Pissarro to observe nature directly and paint outdoors—principles that would become foundational to Impressionism.

During the 1860s, Camille Pissarro exhibited at the official Paris Salon, gaining recognition for his rural landscapes. Camille Pissarro settled in Pontoise, a village northwest of Paris, where the surrounding countryside became his primary subject. The landscapes Camille Pissarro painted during this period demonstrated his evolving style—increasingly interested in capturing light and atmosphere rather than idealized views.

Camille Pissarro married Julie Vellay, his mother’s former maid, in 1871. The couple would have eight children together, six of whom survived to adulthood and became painters themselves—making the Pissarro family one of the most remarkable artistic dynasties in French art history. Lucien Pissarro, the eldest son, became particularly accomplished, later joining the English Arts and Crafts movement.

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The Franco-Prussian War and London Exile

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 devastated Camille Pissarro’s life and work. As a Danish citizen, Camille Pissarro could not join the French army, and he fled with his family as Prussian troops advanced. In September 1870, Camille Pissarro took refuge in London, settling in the suburb of Upper Norwood.

When Camille Pissarro returned to his home in Louveciennes in June 1871, he discovered catastrophe. Prussian soldiers had occupied and destroyed the house, using Camille Pissarro’s paintings as floor mats and butcher’s aprons. Of the approximately 1,500 paintings Camille Pissarro had created over fifteen years, only about forty survived. This loss of virtually his entire early work makes it difficult to fully assess the development of Camille Pissarro’s style before Impressionism.

Yet the London exile proved artistically fruitful. In England, Camille Pissarro encountered the work of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner, whose atmospheric landscapes influenced his developing style. Camille Pissarro also met the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in London, beginning a relationship that would prove crucial to the Impressionists’ eventual commercial success.

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Camille Pissarro and the Birth of Impressionism

Camille Pissarro played a central role in organizing the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Frustrated by the conservative jury of the official Salon, Camille Pissarro and his colleagues—including Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Berthe Morisot—formed the Société Anonyme des Artistes to exhibit independently. The exhibition gave birth to the name “Impressionism,” derived from a critic’s mocking description of Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise.”

From this point forward, Camille Pissarro refused to submit work to the official Salon. Camille Pissarro remained the only artist to exhibit at all eight Impressionist group exhibitions between 1874 and 1886—a record that demonstrates both his commitment to the movement and his role as its most consistent advocate. Art historian John Rewald called Camille Pissarro the “dean of the Impressionist painters,” not only because he was the oldest but also “by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality.”

Camille Pissarro served as the unifying force behind a group of strong personalities who often clashed. When disputes arose—over exhibition policies, styles, or personal conflicts—Camille Pissarro mediated with patience and diplomacy. His generosity toward younger artists became legendary. Camille Pissarro opened his home in Pontoise to painters seeking guidance, offering instruction, encouragement, and the wisdom of experience.

The Artists Camille Pissarro Mentored

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The Neo-Impressionist Experiment of Camille Pissarro

In 1886, at the age of fifty-six, Camille Pissarro made a remarkable artistic decision. After visiting the studio of twenty-six-year-old Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro became fascinated by the younger artist’s scientific approach to color—the technique of applying tiny dots of pure pigment that would optically blend in the viewer’s eye. Camille Pissarro converted to Neo-Impressionism, hailing it as “a new phase in the logical march of Impressionism.”

Camille Pissarro was the only original Impressionist to fully embrace Pointillism. His willingness to start over at an age when most artists rest on their laurels demonstrated the revolutionary spirit that had defined Camille Pissarro’s entire career. Camille Pissarro exhibited Neo-Impressionist works at the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition in 1886, even as his old colleagues viewed the new style with suspicion.

However, by 1890, Camille Pissarro abandoned Neo-Impressionism. He found the technique too slow and systematic—the painstaking application of individual dots constrained Camille Pissarro’s more intuitive approach to painting. Camille Pissarro returned to a fluid Impressionist style, though his work retained lessons learned from the Neo-Impressionist experiment, particularly in his understanding of color relationships.

“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”

Camille Pissarro

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Major Works by Camille Pissarro

The Boulevard Montmartre Series (1897)

In his later years, Camille Pissarro suffered from a chronic eye infection that prevented him from painting outdoors for much of the year. This limitation led Camille Pissarro to create some of his most celebrated works—urban scenes painted from hotel windows overlooking Paris boulevards. The Boulevard Montmartre series of 1897 captures the same street view at different times of day and in different weather conditions, exploring how light transforms urban space.

These paintings by Camille Pissarro rank among the finest urban Impressionist works ever created. In 2014, one painting from the series—”Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps”—sold at Sotheby’s for £19.9 million, nearly five times the previous auction record for Camille Pissarro’s work. The series demonstrates that even in his sixties, working with physical limitations, Camille Pissarro continued producing masterworks.

The Pontoise Landscapes

Camille Pissarro lived in and around Pontoise for much of the 1870s and 1880s, and the region’s rolling farmland, orchards, and villages provided his primary subject matter. These rural landscapes by Camille Pissarro capture peasants working the land, the changing seasons, and the effects of sunlight on the French countryside. Works like “The Harvest, Pontoise” (1881) exemplify Camille Pissarro’s ability to find beauty and significance in ordinary agricultural scenes.

The Éragny Period

In 1884, Camille Pissarro moved to the village of Éragny-sur-Epte in Normandy, where he would remain for the rest of his life. The landscapes Camille Pissarro painted at Éragny show his mature style—more structured than early Impressionism but retaining the movement’s luminosity and attention to atmospheric effects. These works by Camille Pissarro form a sustained meditation on rural life and the passage of seasons.

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Career Milestones of Camille Pissarro

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The Anarchist Politics of Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro held strong anarchist political beliefs throughout his life. This attraction to radical egalitarianism may have originated during his years in St. Thomas, where he witnessed the injustices of colonial society. Camille Pissarro subscribed to the anarchist publication “Le Révolté” and maintained correspondence with leading anarchist theorist Jean Grave.

These political convictions influenced Camille Pissarro’s art. In 1889, Camille Pissarro created “Turpitudes Sociales,” an album of thirty drawings using caricature and allegory to critique capitalist society. Camille Pissarro made this explicitly political work as a gift for his niece, hoping to strengthen her own anarchist beliefs. His sympathy for peasants and workers—evident throughout Camille Pissarro’s landscapes—reflected his political philosophy as much as his artistic vision.

Camille Pissarro’s anarchism also connected him to other politically engaged artists, including Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross. This circle shared both artistic ideas about Neo-Impressionism and political commitments to social transformation. For Camille Pissarro, art and politics were never separate—both expressed his fundamental belief in human dignity and equality.

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Final Years and Death of Camille Pissarro

In his final decade, Camille Pissarro achieved the critical recognition and commercial success that had eluded him for much of his career. The dealer Paul Durand-Ruel organized exhibitions of Camille Pissarro’s work that brought him belated acclaim. Camille Pissarro continued painting prolifically despite his eye condition, producing urban views of Paris, Rouen, and other cities alongside his beloved rural landscapes.

Camille Pissarro died of sepsis in Paris on November 13, 1903, at the age of seventy-three. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Julie Vellay Pissarro survived her husband by more than two decades, dying in 1926. Their children continued the family’s artistic legacy—the Pissarro name remains associated with painting to this day, as descendants continue to practice the art their patriarch championed.

By the time of Camille Pissarro’s death, his place in art history was secure. As the father of Impressionism, mentor to the Post-Impressionists, and participant in Neo-Impressionism, Camille Pissarro had shaped virtually every major development in late nineteenth-century French painting. His generosity, wisdom, and openness to new ideas made him beloved by artists across generations—the “good Lord” that Cézanne described, and the revolutionary spirit that never stopped seeking new ways to capture light and life on canvas.

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The Legacy of Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro’s influence on modern art extends far beyond his own paintings. As a teacher and mentor, Camille Pissarro shaped the development of Cézanne, who would become the “father of modern art”; Gauguin, who would revolutionize color and form; Seurat and Signac, who developed Neo-Impressionism; and van Gogh, whose expressive brushwork would inspire Expressionism. Through these artists, Camille Pissarro’s influence reaches into Fauvism, Cubism, and virtually every subsequent modern movement.

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Where to See Works by Camille Pissarro

Works by Camille Pissarro can be found in major museums worldwide. The Musée d’Orsay in Paris holds one of the finest collections of Camille Pissarro’s Impressionist paintings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago all possess significant works by Camille Pissarro. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has an entire gallery dedicated to the Pissarro family’s work.

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Explore works by Camille Pissarro at the Musée d’Orsay or the Ashmolean Museum’s Pissarro Gallery