Lisieux and Surroundings Artist: Pissarro, Camille
The Danish/French Artist
Camille Pissarro was a French painter born on July 10, 1830, in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies. He died on November 13, 1903, in Paris. He is widely regarded as a central figure in the development of French Impressionism and later Post-Impressionism. His full name was Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro.
Pissarro moved to France in his youth, where he studied painting and gradually became immersed in the avant-garde artistic circles of the mid-19th century. He was deeply influenced by the landscape traditions of artists like Corot but gradually shifted toward a more innovative style that emphasized natural light, open-air composition, and visible brushstrokes—hallmarks of Impressionism.
He was the only artist to exhibit in all eight of the Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886, underscoring his pivotal role in the movement. He maintained close relationships with several major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin. In fact, he played a significant mentoring role for Cézanne and Gauguin, influencing their stylistic evolution and encouraging their independence.
Pissarro often painted rural and urban French scenes, including the countryside around Pontoise and Éragny, where he lived for many years, as well as cityscapes of Paris, Rouen, and Le Havre. His works are marked by a profound attention to the rhythms of daily life, farming, labor, and the quiet dignity of ordinary people. He also experimented with Neo-Impressionism in the 1880s, adopting the pointillist technique briefly under the influence of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, though he later returned to a freer Impressionist style.
Throughout his life, Pissarro remained politically engaged, holding anarchist beliefs, which subtly informed his choice of subjects—often sympathetic portrayals of workers and peasants. He was also a prolific letter writer, and his correspondence, especially with his son Lucien, reveals his aesthetic theories and social convictions.
Pissarro’s legacy rests not only on his paintings but also on his generosity and intellectual rigor, which helped shape the evolution of modern art in France at a critical moment in its history.
This was the only painting we found that he made in Lisieux, Normandy.