Camille Pissarro
Painter
This influential nineteenth-century Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter is remembered for such masterpieces as The Harvest, Boulevard Montmartre à Paris, and Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes.
When he was in his early twenties, he took up an artistic career on the suggestion of his mentor, Fritz Melbye. He first exhibited his work at the Paris Salon of 1859.
Paintings such as Entree du Village de Voisins and Jallais Hill, Pontoise exemplify his artwork's mastery of outdoor settings.
He was born in St. Thomas (then part of the Dutch West Indies) to a French-Portuguese father of Jewish heritage and a mother of Creole descent. He later settled in Pontoise and Louveciennes, France, with his wife, Julie Vellay, and their seven children.
In the mid-1880s, he became acquainted with the their Post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat. He influenced not only Seurat's work, but also that of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne.