Camille Pissarro

Pissarro, Camille Jacob

French, born St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1830 - 1903

Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French painter known as the “father of impressionism.” He is perhaps most famous for his light, elegant paintings of the French countryside and his Parisian cityscapes. Born on the island of Saint Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies, he lived much of his life in Paris.

Initially, Pissarro struggled to find success as an artist. He eventually joined the impressionists, though he was slightly older than many members of the group. Due to his age and good-natured temperament, he became a mentor to artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas.

Pissarro’s style showed a clear pointillist influence: he used thousands of tiny dots of paint to create shimmering scenes of Paris. Pissarro died in 1903. He is known today as one of the foremost French painters of his day.

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Histoire des Peintres Impressionistes

Various Artists, Théodore Duret, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Jean-Baptiste-Armand Guillaumin, H. Floury · 1906 · bound volume with text, etchings, and photomechanical reproductions ·  Accession ID  1964.8.1691

From high up, we look down and out at a river with seven ferries and barges, the waterway lined with buildings on the bank to our right, in this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. Dashes of muted blue, fern green, and tan create the rippling surface of the river, which fills most of the bottom half of the painting. A dark tugboat chugs out of the scene near the bottom center of the composition, and the other vessels create diagonals along the river, angled down toward the bottom right corner. Closer to us in the lower left corner of the painting, a platform edge with a railing juts out to or over the water. At least six people stand on the platform alone or in pairs. They are loosely painted with touches of black, gray, yellow, plum purple, and peach. The platform itself is painted with swipes of sky blue, oatmeal brown, butter yellow, and rose pink. Each person creates a reflection in the surface of the platform, suggesting it is wet, perhaps with rain. The spiky branches of a row of trees along the far side of the platform are sharp against the landscape beyond. The buildings on the far bank are several stories high and lined with windows. Buildings farther in the distance have triangular rooflines or domes, which become slate blue along the hazy horizon. An arched bridge with a flat deck spans the river about halfway back along the river as we see it. In the top half of the picture, fog-gray and cream-white clouds fill the sky with patches of hazy powder blue showing through. The artist signed and dated the painting in sable brown in the lower left corner, “C. Pissarro. 1900.”
Camille Pissarro, The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather, 1900, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Edward C. and Mary Walker Collection), 2014.136.59

The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather

Camille Pissarro · 1900 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.59

Camille Pissarro, Peasants Carrying Hay (Paysans portant du foin), 1900, etching and drypoint, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.7308

Peasants Carrying Hay (Paysans portant du foin)

Camille Pissarro · 1900 · etching and drypoint ·  Accession ID  1943.3.7308

We look down onto a plaza with a sliver of a tall building rising along the left edge of the painting, a row of verdant, green trees to our right, and a row of buildings enclosing the space in the distance in this nearly square landscape painting. The peanut-brown building to our left nearly reaches the top edge of the canvas. It has three oversized, tall stories under a high, sloping roof with a slender chimney. A promenade with carriages runs in front of the tall building. In the plaza closer to us but tiny in scale, people gather in small and large groups, along the bottom edge of the composition. They are painted with dabs and short strokes of cobalt blue, butter and golden yellow, brick red, black, and white. The trees create a diagonal line running from the lower right corner into the scene, along the edge of the plaza to our right. Beyond the plaza and trees, the corners of a formal garden with sand-white walking paths stretch back to the row of buildings in the distance, which come halfway up the painting. That long line of buildings is painted with tones of light brown with rows of tall, narrow windows. The roofs are slate gray, and several cupolas and towers are spaced along its length. The buildings span the width of the painting and disappear behind the tall building to our left. Loosely painted, white, puffy clouds float across the ice-blue sky above. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower left corner: “C. Pissarro. 1900.”
Camille Pissarro, Place du Carrousel, Paris, 1900, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.55

Place du Carrousel, Paris

Camille Pissarro · 1900 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.55

Camille Pissarro, Groupe de paysans (Group of Peasants), c. 1899, chine collé lithograph in black on Ingres de couleur paper, Gift of Martin and Liane Atlas, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.108.1

Groupe de paysans (Group of Peasants)

Camille Pissarro · c. 1899 · chine collé lithograph in black on Ingres de couleur paper ·  Accession ID  1991.108.1

A woman bends double to tend a garden that stretches before us in front of two houses in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with short, visible brushstrokes with a palette dominated by spring, pine, and celery green and earthy tan, peanut, and chestnut brown. Touches of canary yellow, pale pink, coral, and ruby red suggest sunflowers, roses, and other flowers. The woman wears a long, steel-gray skirt and a long-sleeved olive-green shirt. Her brown hair is bound up, and her face and hands, indicated with only a few short swipes of paint, are pale peach. She stoops over a light green patch to our right of center near a bundle of sticks or a group of tall dried stems, to our right. Leafy greens have been planted in rows to our left. Across from us, beyond the cultivated rows, masses of flowers grow in a band that nearly spans the width of the composition. Beyond, a gray stone house with a dark gray roof and a second brick red roof rise above the plants and trees. The pale blue sky above is dotted with cotton-white clouds. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower left corner: “C. Pissarro 1898.”
Camille Pissarro, The Artist's Garden at Eragny, 1898, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.54

The Artist's Garden at Eragny

Camille Pissarro · 1898 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.54

We look down onto a wide, bustling, tree-lined avenue filled with buildings, people, and horse-drawn carriages in this horizontal painting. Muted, warm browns, sage green, slate blue, and brick red dominate the urban scene, which is loosely painted with short and long dotted brushstrokes so some details are difficult to make out. The street extends diagonally up from our lower left with wide gray sidewalks on either side, which are lined by slender trees sparsely dotted with brown leaves. Dozens of pedestrians meander individually, in pairs, and in small groups on the sidewalks in coats and hats. Across from us, multi-storied buildings with store fronts at street level stretch across the width of the canvas. Rows of windows line the facades. Horse-drawn carriages move in both directions on the street and two omnibuses have pulled to the curb closest to us, where passengers have lined up. Two brick-red, hexagonally shaped kiosks stand opposite each other on either side of the street about halfway along the boulevard. Sunlight filters onto the scene, creating a dappled effect in some areas, especially over to our right. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark green in the lower right corner: “C.Pissarro.97.”
Camille Pissarro, Boulevard des Italiens, Morning, Sunlight, 1897, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.198

Boulevard des Italiens, Morning, Sunlight

Camille Pissarro · 1897 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.198

Camille Pissarro, Beggar with a Crutch (Mendiant a la bequille), 1897, lithograph on blue-violet paper laid down on whitepaper, Print Purchase Fund (Ailsa Mellon Bruce), 1974.27.3

Beggar with a Crutch (Mendiant a la bequille)

Camille Pissarro · 1897 · lithograph on blue-violet paper laid down on whitepaper ·  Accession ID  1974.27.3

Camille Pissarro, Gardeuse d'oies nue (Nude Goose Girl), c. 1897, lithograph (zinc), Rosenwald Collection, 1949.5.485

Gardeuse d'oies nue (Nude Goose Girl)

Camille Pissarro · c. 1897 · lithograph (zinc) ·  Accession ID  1949.5.485

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Baigneuses luttant (Bathers Wrestling)

Camille Pissarro · c. 1896 · lithograph with chine collé ·  Accession ID  2017.182.2