Camille Pissarro (1830 – 1903) was a French Impressionist who perceived light as inseparable from the subject it illuminated. Pissarro, known as the “Father of impressionism,” painted rural and urban French life in works that showed empathy for peasants and laborers, sometimes expressing his radical political principles through his artwork. Contributing significantly to Impressionist theory, he also mentored numerous artists who were to become historically significant, including Paul Cézanne and Paul Gaugin. Although Pissarro’s style digressed from traditional artistic standards and received scathing criticism against which he struggled for most of his life, it was eventually accepted, and his works now sell for millions of dollars.

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