Lucien Pissarro - Biography

Biography

Lucien Pissarro was born on 20 February 1863 in Paris, the eldest of the seven children of the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and his wife Julie (née Vellay). He studied with his father, and was influenced by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

In 1886 he exhibited with the Impressionists. From 1886 to 1894 he exhibited with the Salon des Independents.

He first visited Britain in 1870-1 during the Franco-Prussian War. He returned in 1883-4, and in 1890 settled permanently in London. In 1892 he married Esther Bensusan, who in 1893 gave birth to their only child, Orovida Camille Pissarro. He met Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, and contributed woodcuts to their Dial. In 1894 he founded the Eragny Press and with his wife printed illustrated books until 1914. In 1903 he designed the typeface Brook Type.

He associated with Walter Sickert in Fitzroy Street, and in 1906 became a member of the New English Art Club. From 1913 to 1919 he painted landscapes of Dorest, Westmorland, Devon, Essex, Surrey and Sussex.

In 1916 he became a British citizen.

While in Britain he was one of the founders of the Camden Town Group of artists. In 1919, he formed the Monarro Group with J.B. Manson as the London Secretary and Theo van Rysselberghe as the Paris secretary, aiming to show artists inspired by Impressionist painters, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. The group ceased three years later.

From 1922 to 1937 he painted regularly in the south of France, interspersed with painting expeditions to Derbyshire, south Wales and Essex.

From 1934 to 1944 he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

He died on 10 July 1944, in Hewood, Somerset.

The Pissarros' only child, Orovida Camille Pissarro, was also an artist.