NEN Gallery

Pissarro was born in 1863 in Paris, the eldest son of the Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. Taught by his father to paint, Lucien began his career as a landscape artist and in 1886 participated in the 8th and last Impressionist exhibition with 10 paintings and graphic works. He was one of the first to join the Neo-Impressionist movement and exhibited at the first Salon des Indépendants. In 1888 he exhibited with the avant-garde group Les Vingt in Brussels. However, he became more interested in woodcuts and wood engravings and worked for the printer Manzi.

Pissarro moved to London in 1890 and established friendly contacts with the Pre-Raphaelites and plein-air painters. He became a British citizen in 1916, although he preferred to call himself a ‘Channel painter’, spending several months of each year in France. In 1894, he founded the Eragny Press (the name comes from a place near Dieppe), which played a significant role in the development of European book art. He ran the press with his wife Esther L. Bensusan until 1914. In 1911, Pissarro co-founded the Camden Town Group of artists, forging an important link between French Impressionists and early 20th century British painters. He held his first one-man exhibition at Carfax & Co. 1913. In 1919, he formed the Monarro Group to propagate Impressionism in England, but the group ceased three years later. He had retrospective exhibitions at the Hampstead Art Gallery in 1920, at Manchester and Blackpool in 1935 and at the O'Hana Gallery in 1955. In 1943, he was represented in the exhibitions of Three Generations of Pissarro at Miller's, Lewes, 1943, and the O'Hana Gallery in 1954. Pissarro died on 10 July, 1944. His only daughter, Orovida, was also an artist.