Camille Pissarro: Style, Influences, and Impressionism

Introduction to Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro was born in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. A famous French Impressionist, Pissarro was taught and influenced by the Barbizon School and Corot ("Pissarro, Camille," 2012). It was not until later that Pissarro aligned himself with the other Impressionists and was represented in all of the Impressionist exhibitions. The era of the eight Impressionist exhibitions lasted from 1874 to 1886. From 1885 to 1890, Pissarro led a Neo-Impressionist phase. Along with exploring different forms of art, Pissarro was also a dedicated teacher, instructing artists such as Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin.

Early Training and Travels

The first school Pissarro attended was at Passy, near Paris, from 1842 to 1847. It was during this time that he developed an interest in drawing and visiting museums. Neither of his parents had a connection to art, as both were merchants. In the late 1840s, Pissarro returned to his hometown to study with a Dutch marine artist, Fritz Melbye. A formative teacher, Melbye traveled with Pissarro to Venezuela, where both artists became deeply interested in painting nature and, in particular, studying the different qualities of light. Although few paintings survive from this early period, those that do depict scenes from markets, ports, and natural landscapes (Clement & Houze, 1999, p. 137).

Pissarro returned to Paris around the time of the l'Exposition Universelle. He later took private classes, where he became acquainted with artists such as Armand Guillaumin, Cézanne, and Monet. Until 1870, most of Pissarro's paintings were accepted at the Salon on a regular basis. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the destruction of Pissarro's home by Prussian troops, causing the loss of many of his works. This forced him to flee to London, and he later settled in Pontoise in 1872.

Paris, the Salon, and the Influence of Corot

Among his teachers, Pissarro specifically took lessons from Corot; however, his other instructors included Jean-François Millet, Courbet, Charles-François Daubigny, and others. Pissarro found the teaching methods of these instructors overly regimented and stifling. Corot encouraged him to expand his reach and move beyond what the Salon demanded (Rewald, 1989).

Since the Salon was an official institution, the prevailing culture of the time dictated what it would display. In Paris at that time, the Salon was the only venue where emerging artists could bring their work to a wider audience. In order to have his paintings included in exhibitions, Pissarro adapted them to meet the committee's expectations. At the same time, however, his independent work was shaped by Corot's influence. Both artists shared a fondness for nature and rural scenes, and this common interest drew them toward closer collaboration. It can therefore be said that Corot was one of the primary inspirations for Pissarro's turn toward outdoor landscape painting. Alongside Corot, Pissarro's love of landscape was also nurtured by Chintreuil, Courbet, and Daubigny (Clement & Houze, 1999, p. 138).

Although Pissarro maintained a studio in Paris, he chose to live away from the city, residing in rural areas such as Pontoise, Louveciennes, La Roche-Guyon, Varenne-Saint-Maur, and Montmorency. Pissarro met Julie Vellay in 1860 and married her in London in 1871; together they had eight children (Clement & Houze, 1999, p. 137). Pissarro was an artist who continually moved, as demonstrated by his relocation to the village of Osny in 1882 and then to Normandy in 1884, where he purchased a large house and converted its barn into a studio. After discovering Neo-Impressionism, Pissarro brought Seurat, Signac, and his own son Lucien into the final Impressionist exhibition in May 1886. Pissarro, however, was reluctant to present the new group under the label "Scientific Impressionists" (Clement & Houze, 1999, p. 138).

Despite his frequent stylistic shifts, Pissarro's work has been appreciated across the decades. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford holds some of the most significant pieces of his work. In addition to painting, Pissarro was a highly regarded draughtsman, and his sketches are equally recognized. He also produced numerous monotypes with Degas in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

Impressionist Style and Key Collaborations

The variety of styles in Pissarro's work reflects the range of teachers who influenced him. His first teacher, Fritz Melbye, encouraged him to draw everything around him, and Pissarro at this stage had no fixed approach. Later, in Paris, his style was shaped largely by what the Salon required, leading him to conform to the academic traditions of the day. It was in Paris that he became increasingly drawn to nature and landscape portraiture — a tendency evident even in his earliest sketches of villages, ports, and countryside scenery. The fact that Pissarro moved away from the city to paint rural subjects is a testament to this deeply rooted affinity for nature.

In 1866, after moving to Pontoise, Pissarro began his series of plein air landscapes. These works were admired for their fidelity to the actual scene and their compositional simplicity. Three years later, living in Louveciennes, he committed fully to an Impressionist style (Clement & Houze, 1999, p. 138). His friendships with artists he had met at the academies — particularly Monet — helped him refine this approach. Although much of his earlier work had been lost in the war, his output in the 1870s ranks among the most accomplished Impressionist paintings of the period. After settling in new locations, he continued to exhibit alongside other Impressionists at the 1874 exhibition, and he maintained close ties with Monet while also collaborating with Degas and Cézanne. From 1879 onward, he also exchanged ideas with Gauguin.