Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter. His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

In 1873 he helped establish a collective society of fifteen aspiring artists, becoming the “pivotal” figure in holding the group together and encouraging the other members. Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the “dean of the Impressionist painters”, not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also “by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality”. Paul Cezanne said “he was a father for me. A man to consult and a little like the good Lord”, and he was also one of Paul Gauguin’s masters. Pierre-Auguste Renoir referred to his work as “revolutionary”, through his artistic portrayals of the “common man”, as Pissarro insisted on painting individuals in natural settings without “artifice or grandeur”.

Art critic Armand Silvestre had called Pissarro the “most real and most naive member” of the Impressionist group. His work has also been described by art historian Diane Kelder as expressing “the same quiet dignity, sincerity, and durability that distinguished his person.” She adds that “no member of the group did more to mediate the internecine disputes that threatened at times to break it apart, and no one was a more diligent proselytizer of the new painting.”

When Pissarro returned to his home in France after the war, he discovered that of the 1,500 paintings he had done over 20 years, which he was forced to leave behind when he moved to London, only 40 remained. The rest had been damaged or destroyed by the soldiers, who often used them as floor mats outside in the mud to keep their boots clean. It is assumed that many of those lost were done in the Impressionist style he was then developing, thereby “documenting the birth of Impressionism.” Armand Silvestre, a critic, went so far as to call Pissarro “basically the inventor of this [Impressionist] painting”.

He soon reestablished his friendships with the other Impressionist artists of his earlier group, including Cézanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Degas. Pissarro now expressed his opinion to the group that he wanted an alternative to “The Salon” so their group could display their own unique styles. He helped establish a separate collective, which included fifteen artists. Pissarro created the group’s first charter and became the “pivotal” figure in establishing and holding the group together.

The new manner of painting was too sketchy and looked incomplete. In the following year, the group held their first ‘Impressionist’ Exhibition, which shocked and “horrified” the critics, who primarily appreciated only scenes portraying religious, historical, or mythological settings. Pissarro showed five of his paintings, all landscapes, at the exhibit. They found fault with the Impressionist paintings on many grounds:

• The subject matter was considered “vulgar” and “commonplace,” with scenes of street people going about their everyday lives. Pissarro’s paintings, for instance, showed scenes of muddy, dirty, and unkempt settings.
• The manner of painting was too sketchy and looked incomplete, especially compared to the traditional styles of the period. The use of visible and expressive brushwork by all the artists was considered an insult to the craft of traditional artists, who often spent weeks on their work. Here, the paintings were often done in one sitting and the paints were applied wet-on-wet.
• The use of color by the Impressionists relied on new theories they developed, such as having shadows painted with the reflected light of surrounding, and often unseen, objects.

In the next Impressionist exhibit, art critic Albert Wolff complained in his review, “Try to make M. Pissarro understand that trees are not violet, that sky is not the color of fresh butter …” Journalist and art critic Octave Mirbeau on the other hand, writes, “Camille Pissarro has been a revolutionary through the revitalized working methods with which he has endowed painting”. According to art historian, John Rewald, Pissarro had taken on an attitude more simple and natural than the other artists. He writes: “Rather than glorifying—consciously or not—the rugged existence of the peasants, he placed them without any ‘pose’ in their habitual surroundings, thus becoming an objective chronicler of one of the many facets of contemporary life.”

In later years, Cézanne also recalled this period and referred to Pissarro as “the first Impressionist”. In 1906, a few years after Pissarro’s death, Cézanne, then 67 and a role model for the new generation of artists, paid Pissarro a debt of gratitude by having himself listed in an exhibition catalogue as “Paul Cézanne, pupil of Pissarro”. American Impressionist and contemporary of Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, once described him as a teacher “that could have taught the stones to draw correctly.”

Reference:

“Camille Pissarro.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 May 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Pissaro