Pissaro, Paul Emile

Paul Emile Pissarro was born in Eragny, France in 1884, and was the fifth and youngest son of Camille Pissarro. Following his father’s death Paul Emile returned from Paris with his mother to Eragny, which was only about 20 miles away from Giverny where his father’s good friend Monet lived. Paul Emile would travel to Giverny where Monet gave him lessons in painting and horticulture. Paul Emile Pissarro studied with his father and Monet for many years.

Paul Emile was very influenced by Cézanne and he knew Cézanne’s work at first hand from the landscapes and still-life paintings that hung in the family dining room at Eragny. They also met several times in Paris. Cézanne’s long-term influence on Paul Emile’s work became evident in the green-gold palette and classical compositions he employed in his work from 1918 onwards, and later in his use of a palette knife instead of paintbrushes.

By the 1920’s Paul Emile had become an established Post-Impressionist artist in his own right. With his artist friends van Dongen, de Vlaminck, de Segonzac and Raoul Dufy he would travel during the summer, painting in the French countryside and returning to Paris or the winter. In 1924 he bought a house in Lyons-la-Fort, a small town near Gisors and Eragny where he had grown up. Here was a landscape Paul Emile painted with great pleasure and throughout his carrier he painted it again and again.