Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944)

1863 - 1944

Lucien Pissarro was born on 20 February 1863 in Paris, the eldest of seven siblings to Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and Julie Vellay (1839-1926). Growing up, Lucien spent much time in the company of his father’s fellow artists, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and was much influenced by George Seurat and Paul Signac.

He first visited England in 1870-71, during the Franco-Prussian war, staying with relations in Upper Norwood, London. He visited again in 1883-84, living with family in Holloway Road, North London, to learn English and work for a music publisher. During this time, he met his future wife Esther Bensusan.

During the next six years he lived with his family at Eragny, a village in Normandy, working alongside his father, learning the principles of Impressionism and the technique of woodcutting, whilst also working as a landscape painter. He exhibited in the last impressionist exhibition in 1886 with his Father and met Vincent van Gogh who dedicated a painting to him in 1887 entitled Basket of Apples “A l’ami Lucien Pissarro” which hangs in the Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterloo. During the years 1886 -1894 he exhibited work with the Salon des Independents.

Pissarro moved to England in November 1890 due to his interest in the work of William Morris and the illustrators of the Arts & Crafts movement & the Kelmscott Press. At this time, He met followers of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. He married Esther in 1892 and settled in Epping in 1893 until 1897. Here they both founded Eragny ... show more

Lucien Pissarro was born on 20 February 1863 in Paris, the eldest of seven siblings to Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and Julie Vellay (1839-1926). Growing up, Lucien spent much time in the company of his father’s fellow artists, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and was much influenced by George Seurat and Paul Signac.

He first visited England in 1870-71, during the Franco-Prussian war, staying with relations in Upper Norwood, London. He visited again in 1883-84, living with family in Holloway Road, North London, to learn English and work for a music publisher. During this time, he met his future wife Esther Bensusan.

During the next six years he lived with his family at Eragny, a village in Normandy, working alongside his father, learning the principles of Impressionism and the technique of woodcutting, whilst also working as a landscape painter. He exhibited in the last impressionist exhibition in 1886 with his Father and met Vincent van Gogh who dedicated a painting to him in 1887 entitled Basket of Apples “A l’ami Lucien Pissarro” which hangs in the Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterloo. During the years 1886 -1894 he exhibited work with the Salon des Independents.

Pissarro moved to England in November 1890 due to his interest in the work of William Morris and the illustrators of the Arts & Crafts movement & the Kelmscott Press. At this time, He met followers of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. He married Esther in 1892 and settled in Epping in 1893 until 1897. Here they both founded Eragny

Press, printing in delicate colours with the addition of gilding, representing the art of medieval illumination with literature ranging from the classic to modern by both French & English authors Whilst Eragny Press was active, they published 32 books. The Press was closed in 1914.

During the 1890’s Pissarro produced many works in Epping. He suffered a series of strokes in 1897 and painted very little until 1903 when he accompanied his father to Le Havre on their last working trip together.

In 1897 Pissarro, his wife and daughter Orovida Camille Pissarro moved to 62 Bath Road, Stamford Brook, Chiswick. Despite being unwell due to his strokes, he continued his book production, using engravings already started. In 1902 the family moved to The Brook, a house and studio nearby at 27 Stamford Brook Road. In 1903 he designed the typeface “Brook Type”

In 1904 Pissarro exhibited with the New English Art Club. He was elected a member two years later in 1906 and mostly exhibited landscape works of Dorset, Westmoreland, Essex, Surrey and Sussex.

In 1907 he joined the group of painters, led by Walter Sickert who gathered on Saturdays to discuss, exhibit and sell their work at 19 Fitzroy Street, London. They both became the founder members of the Campden Town Group in 1911, who showed bright scenes of urban life and sponsored three exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery to introduce early French Fauve and Cubist works to the public. It was absorbed by the London Group in 1913 and Pissarro resigned due to his feeling that “the wrong clique has taken influence”. His influence can be seen in the work of Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, William Ratcliffe and James Bolivar Manson. He helped Sickert and Gilman sort out Gore’s paintings after his early death in March 1914.

In 1916 Pissarro was granted British Citizenship and began painting in the area of East Knoyle in Wiltshire.

In 1919 he founded the Monarro Group with J B Manson as the London secretary and Theo van Rysselberghe as the Paris secretary. This group was created to show works by artists that had been inspired by Impressionist painters. It closed after three years.

From 1922 -1937 he painted regularly in the south of France interspersed with painting expeditions to Derbyshire, south Wales and Essex. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1934 until his death on 10th July 1944. He died at Hill Cottage, Thorncombe, Dorset where he had moved to in 1940.

His work was widely admired during his lifetime where he held exhibitions in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester. He exhibited regularly at the Leicester Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts and the Ben Uri Gallery from 1934 onwards. Reviewing his exhibition at an Art Gallery in London, the Manchester Guardian noted that “his landscapes are delightfully and lovingly painted. Lucian Pissarro is by no means content merely to use the Impressionist formula: he sees with genuinely impressionist eyes…his colour, even at its subtlest is never anything but clean and fresh. And, more than all, there is an intimacy in these landscapes that only a real lover of the countryside can achieve”. (1935, p.20) This painting of Eragny, his family’s home in Normandy can certainly illustrate these words in respect to the Impressionist style he was brought up with, the fresh colours and keen eye for nature.

In 1946 and 1947, the Leicester galleries staged two memorial exhibitions, one dedicated to his paintings, the other to Eragny Press. The Arts Council hosted an exhibition in 1963 and noted Gallery owner Anthony d’Offay held shows in 1977 and 1983. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford presented an exhibition “Lucien Pissarro in England” where the Pissarro family archive is held.

Pissarro’s work is represented in many UK public collections including the British Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery, The Tate Gallery, Ben Uri Collection and The Courtauld, London.