How to Appreciate Pissarro

Pissarro is considered the first of the Impressionists and is sometimes called the "Father of Impressionism." His work is a catalog of the play of time and light on the French countryside.

Things You'll Need

• Art History Books
• Art Reproductions

Instructions

1. Familiarize yourself with all of the Impressionists. Pissarro was a contemporary of Courbet, Corot and Monet and a teacher of the American Impressionist Mary Cassat. His most famous paintings are "Le Bois de Châtaigniers en Hiver," "Louveciennes," "Portrait de Félix en Jupe," "Etude de Pommiers à Eragny," "Le Pont de Mâcon" and "Jeune Fille Cousant."

2. Know that Pissarro's history and his shaking off of middle-class conventions (he married his mother's maid) mirrored the course of the school with which he was associated. He ran away from home and the disapproval of his father to paint and live in Caracas for two years.

3. Know that Pissarro exhibited in the Salon des Refuses in 1860. Unable to find a place to exhibit, the first Impressionists took over a photographer's studio to show their work.

4. Know that the Impressionists were ridiculed and criticized when they first exhibited their work, but eventually they changed the way art was viewed and made.

5. Examine the play of light and shadow in Pissarro's work. He painted shadow as full of color to show the feeling of a particular time of day, not just varying shades of grey.

6. Study the style of painting Pissarro and his contemporaries were trying to escape prior to Impressionism. It was rigid and academic in form.

7. Know that the Impressionists demonstrated that colors in the real world are changed by effects of light and atmosphere.

8. Know that Pissarro was famous for his landscapes and that he is associated most with them.

9. Compare Pissarro's work with that of Seurat and Cezanne; both of these artists had a profound affect on his work. Under the influence of Seurat, Pissarro adopted neo-Impressionism and then the divisionist technique or pointillism.

10. Know that his changing style profoundly affected how much work he sold and was unpopular with his dealers.

11. Read the correspondence between Pissarro and his son, "Letters to His Son Lucien," first published in 1944 and revised in 1972, and "The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro, 1883-1903." The letters detail Pissarro's financial hardship and preoccupation with the style and technique of Impressionist painting and demonstrate the close ties he had with his son.

Tips & Warnings

• Camille Pissarro was born on St. Thomas in the Caribbean in 1830 and died in Paris in 1903.