Camille Pissarro
The only painter in all eight Impressionist exhibitions, and the teacher the others went to.
Camille Pissarro was born on St Thomas in the Danish West Indies in 1830 and settled in France in 1855. He was the one constant of Impressionism, the only artist to exhibit in all eight of the group's shows, and the figure Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh each described as a teacher. He painted the countryside at Pontoise and Eragny, the peasants working in it, and, in the 1890s, series of Paris and Rouen boulevards seen from hotel windows. He worked through a Neo-Impressionist period with Seurat and Signac before returning to a looser touch. He died in 1903.
A long and productive career, and a large family of painters after him — his sons Lucien, Georges, Felix, Ludovic-Rodo and Paul-Emile all painted, as did later descendants — which is a practical matter, since works by his children are regularly offered under the father's name and the signatures are similar. The catalogue raisonne is the reference. Provenance across 1933 to 1945 is examined as standard for this generation and there have been prominent restitution cases. Gouaches, watercolours, drawings and a substantial etching output all trade.
If you own a work by Camille Pissarro
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