CAMILLE PISSARRO

France Camille Pissarro was one of the most influential members of the French Impressionist Movement and was the only artist to participate in all eight of the impressionist exhibitions. Born on July 10th, 1830, in Saint-Thomas in the West Indies, Camille was sent to school in Paris where he displayed a talent for drawing. He returned in 1855, having convinced his parents of his determination to pursue a career as an artist. He studied at the Académie Suisse with Monet and met Cezanne, and Renoir. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 prompted Camille to more to England. With Monet he painted a series of landscapes around Norwood and Crystal Palace. On returning home to Louveciennes a year later, Camille discovered that only 40 of his 1500 paintings-almost twenty years work-remained undamaged. In 1872 he moved to Pontoise and remained there for ten years. Gauguin was among the many artists to visit Camille there, and Cezanne who lived nearby came for long periods to work and learn. In the last ten years Camille divided his time between the cities of Paris, Rouen and Le Havre and his home in Eragny where, surrounded by his family and the works of his contemporaries, he finally started to gain public recognition and became free from financial concerns.