Self-Portrait

Camille Pissarro was raised in a French Sephardic family on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. In 1855, he left for Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and began exhibiting in the Salon in 1859. In the 1870s, Pissarro helped give form to what became known as the Impressionist movement; he was the only artist who showed in all the group’s eight exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886. He gained fame particularly for his luminous landscapes and cityscapes, although he also painted human figures.