Camille Pissarro: Biography
Camille Pissarro was born on July 10, 1830 on the Caribben island of St. Thomas and grew up in a good-sized aprtment overlooking the main street of Charlotte Amalie (a little port town). Many trading ships frequented Charlotte Amalie weekly and there was not only the great influence of different cultures with the trading goods, but also the people (sailors, merchants and travelers from the Americas, Africa and Europe). He spoke French at home and Spanish and English with the Negro population of the island. He went to a boarding school when he was twelve and after his director noticed his interest in art, he advised Camille to take advantage of his surroundings in the tropics and draw the coconut trees. In 1846 when he returned to St. Thomas the advice truly had stuck with him and carried a sketchbook everywhere with him sketching all scenes of everyday life for every socioeconomic class. His father wanted him to check arrivals in the port, yet he struggled to do his daily chores. It was during this period he became very attracted to political anarchy and remained an anarchist for the rest of his life. Since his parents did not give him permission to devote himself to painting, he ran away with Fritz Melbye (a Danish painter from Copenhagen) and sailed to Venezuela “in order to get clear of the bondage of bourgeois life.” After ensuring his own total independence he had time to dream, to explore and to grow and Melbye helped him to reign his interests in producing paintings, watercolors and drawings many of which were signed in Spanish Pizzarro.
In 1852 his parents finally claimed their support for his artistic career and returned to St. Thomas only to leave for Paris to further his studies and to pursue a career. He did not find any inspiration from the classes of acknowledged masters and began turning his attention to artists whose work did not conform to any greatly accepted style. He saw in these revolutionary artists’ work the emergence of a distinct new form in which the subject and artist are both expressed. He wanted to truly investigate the way scenes and objects imprinted themselves to memory. He recorded every aspect of the subject especially the conditions of the light since he perceived light as inseperable from the things it illuminates. This was not received very well by the art connoisseurs of the time because they did not grasp the significance of this bold departure from the classic. Those of the old school were only concerned with technical execution. He distanced himself from his teachers Melbye and Corot and began severely criticizing his own work. Then he had a chance meeting with Monet and Cezanne and entered a new network of acquaintence in which these refreshing new friendships brought new insight and encouragenemtn.
His parents left their business with a caretaker and moved to Paris. Pissarro met his long-life companion Julie Vellay. Monet and Pissarro were discouraged by the critical scrutiny of the French Salons and in 1874 they organized independent exhibitions (featuring such artists Renior, Sisley, Beliard, Guillaumin, Degas, Cezanne, and Berthe Morisot). The new artists were met with much criticism and the term “impressionst” became an insult since the art world of the time valued only photographic realism and the idealization of the subject. He was met with much criticism for his anarchist beliefs since he was supporting anarchy in a period when anarchists were supposedly bombing public buildings. Although he would not suffer his personal political principle for market share, Pissarro was determined to make their new approach to art stay and he became the center of the group of painters keeping them together and encouraging them. He became known as the “Father of Impressionism” showing all sides of rural and urban French life contributing to Impressionist theory.
He only finally got the respectability he deserved when he turned 74 and his works became expensive and a new generation of artists admired his work. He died of blood poisioning on November 13, 1903 in France leaving behind eight children who all also painted.
Source: http://www.pissarro.vi/artist.htm
