This major exhibition, of works drawn from the Ashmolean's collections as well as international loans, spanned Pissarro's entire career.
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) is one of the most celebrated artists of 19th-century France and a central figure in Impressionism. Considered a father-figure to many in the movement, his work was enormously influential for many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne.
The exhibition featured 120 works, 80 by Pissarro and 40 by his friends and contemporaries, with eight paintings on display for the first time in this country. It drew on the Ashmolean's Pissarro archive, the world’s largest collection devoted to an Impressionist artist, revealing intimate and fascinating details about Pissarro, his artist-friends and relatives. It aimed to show him as the galvanising force that propelled modern art forward and without whom there would have been no Impressionism.
Image: Design for a fan: The pea stakers, 1890, Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) WA1952.6.310
