Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Lucien Pissarro artist

Lucien Pissarro was born the eldest son of Jewish Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, in Paris, France, in 1863 and moved permanently to England in 1890, encouraged by the revival of wood-engraving and book and type design by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. In 1894 he and his wife founded the Eragny Press, producing elaborate illustrations to accompany texts by French and English authors. A founding member of the Camden Town Group of painters, together with Walter Sickert, Pissarro's bright English impressionist landscapes were widely admired during his lifetime and he was a regular exhibitor at the Leicester Galleries, New English Art Club (NEAC) and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Born: 1863 Paris, France

Died: 1944 Thorncombe, Dorset, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1890


Biography

Painter and printmaker Lucien Pissarro was born on 20 February 1863 in Paris, eldest son of Jewish Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. He grew up in France and frequently interacted with artists from his father’s circle, such as Monet and Renoir. He first visited England in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, returning in 1883, when he remained in London for a few months to learn English and when he met his future wife, Esther Bensusan. Afterwards, Pissarro moved with his family to Eragny, a village in Normandy. Over the next six years, he worked alongside his father, building a thorough understanding of the principles of Impressionism and learning the technique of woodcutting. In 1884 Vale Press issued a portfolio of six woodcuts Travaux des Champs, designed by his father and engraved and printed by Pissarro. In addition, he illustrated six of the Vale Press publications, and contributed to the English literary periodical, The Dial. In 1901, a complete set of these illustrations was donated to the British Museum.

In November 1890 Pissarro settled permanently in London, encouraged by the revival of wood-engraving and book and type design by William Morris and others within the Arts and Crafts movement. The same year, he delivered an important talk to the Art Workers’ Guild on the Impressionists and developments in French painting. He soon became involved in English artistic circles and was introduced to the followers of Edward Burne-Jones and the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1892 he married Esther and two years later they founded the Eragny Press at their cottage in Epping, Essex. The elaborate illustrations they produced, often printed in delicate colours, sometimes with added gilding, recalling the art of medieval illumination, accompanied texts by French and English authors, ranging from classic to modern literature. The first book, the fairy tale The Queen of Fishes by Gerard de Nerval (translated by Margaret Rust) was published in 1895. Others included Un Coeur Simple by Gustave Flaubert (1901) and Of Gardens by Sir Francis Bacon, first published in 1625. Pissarro and Bensusan wrote and illustrated for the press until its closure in 1914. During the 1890s, Pissarro produced some especially vigorous paintings in Epping. However, after suffering three strokes in 1897 he painted little until 1903, when he accompanied his father to Le Havre on what was to be their last working trip together. The following year Pissarro first exhibited with the progressive New English Art Club (NEAC). Elected a member in 1906, he frequently showed Dorset, Westmoreland, Essex, Surrey and Sussex landscapes. In 1907 he joined the group of painters who, led by Walter Sickert, gathered on Saturdays to discuss, exhibit, and sell their work at 19 Fitzroy Street, London. Pissarro and Sickert in turn became two of the founders of the Camden Town Group. Known for its bright scenes of contemporary urban life, the Group sponsored three exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery, introducing early French Fauve and Cubist works to the public, before it was absorbed by The London Group in 1913. Pissarro resigned from The London Group before its first exhibition, in March 1914, and in June held an exhibition at the Carfax Gallery with several disciples, including James Bolivar Manson.

In 1916 Pissarro was granted British citizenship and began painting in and around the village of East Knoyle in Wiltshire. In 1919 he founded the Monarro Group to exhibit those artists inspired by the leading Impressionists, Monet and Pissarro. Pissarro's landscapes were widely admired during his lifetime and he had shows in London, Birmingham, Bradford, and Manchester. He was a regular exhibitor at the Leicester Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, and his work was shown at the Ben Uri Gallery from 1934 onwards, lent by Mrs. Robert Solomon (Ethel Solomon, the gallery's influential Art Committee chairman, who presented Pissarro's oil, The Pagoda, Kew to the permanent collection) and by the Leicester Galleries, among others. Reviewing his 1935 exhibition at the Art Gallery in London The Manchester Guardian noted that his 'landscapes are delightfully and lovingly painted. Lucien Pissarro is by no means content merely to use the Impressionist formula: he sees with genuinely Impressionist eyes (…) his colour, even at its subtlest, is never anything but clean and fresh. And, more than all, there is an intimacy in these landscapes that only a real lover of the countryside can achieve' (1935, p. 20).


Lucien Pissarro died on 10 July 1944 at Hill Cottage, Thorncombe, Dorset, England, his home since 1940. In 1946 and 1947, the Leicester Galleries staged two memorial exhibitions – one dedicated to his paintings and the other to the Eragny Press. The Arts Council Gallery (forerunner to the Arts Council of England) hosted an exhibition in 1963, and noted London gallerist and collector, Anthony d'Offay, held shows in 1977 and 1983. In 2011, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford presented an exhibition entitled Lucien Pissarro in England, which included the first comprehensive display of his work for the Eragny Press. The Ashmolean also houses the Pissarro Family Archive. Pissarro's work is represented in many UK public collections, including the Ben Uri Collection, British Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery, and Tate.

Related books

  • Peter Wakelin, Refuge and Renewal: Migration and British Art (Bristol: Sansom and Company, 2019)
  • Wendy Baron, Pissarro, Lucien Camille, in H C G Matthew, Brian Harrison and Lawrence Goldman eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
  • Camille Pissarro & His Sons: Works on Paper, (London: Stern Pissarro Gallery, 2010)
  • Lucien Pissarro, Camille Pissarro and Anne Thorold, The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro 1883–1903, (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
  • Marcella D Genz, A History of the Eragny Press, 1894–1914, (Delaware, USA: Oak Knoll Press/London: British Library, 2004)
  • Jeff Horwood, Pissarro family, Drawings, Watercolours, Oil Paintings, Woodcuts, and Etchings by Lucien Pissarro, 1863-1944, (London: Fine Art Society, 2003)
  • Lora S Urbanelli, Wesley B Tanner, The Book Art of Lucien Pissarro (Rhode Island, USA: Moyer Bell, 1997)
  • Nicholas Reed, Pissarro in West London, (Canterbury: Lilburne Press, 1997)
  • Anne Thorold, Lucien Pissarro, Camille Pissarro, The Letters of Lucien to Camille Pissarro, 1883-1903 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993)
  • Lucien Pissarro and His Watercolours, (London: Spink & Son Ltd, 1990)
  • Anne Thorold, Catalogue of the Oil Paintings of Lucien Pissarro (London: Athelney Books, 1983)
  • Camille Pissarro, Camille Pissarro: Letters to his Son Lucien (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980)
  • Bernard Berry, Lucien Pissarro at East Knoyle, Country Life, Vol. 146, No. 3790, 1969, pp. 1034-1035
  • The Place of Lucien Pissarro, The Times, 10 January 1963, p. 4
  • John Cornforth, A French Impressionist in England: Lucien Pissarro Re-assessed, Country Life, Vol. 133, 1963, pp. 98-99
  • William Sutton Meadmore, Lucien Pissarro: Un Coeur Simple (London: Constable, 1962)
  • Lucien Pissarro, The Manchester Guardian, 12 July 1944, p. 8
  • Lucien Pissarro. Paintings at the Art Gallery, The Manchester Guardian, 1935, p. 20
  • Paintings by Lucien Pissarro, The Manchester Guardian, 1928, p. 15
  • M. Lucien Pissarro at the Carfax Gallery, The Athenaeum, No. 4463, pp. 527-527, 1913
  • W. Roberts, The Print Room, British Museum. Lucien Pissarro, The Magazine of Art, 1902, pp. 276-279

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Camden Town Group (co-founder)
  • Eragny Press (founder)
  • Fitzroy Street Group (member)
  • London Group (member)
  • New English Art Club (member)
  • Monarro Group (founder)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Crossing Borders, Ferens Art Gallery (2018)
  • Ben Uri: 100 for 100, Christies, South Kensington (2016)
  • Out of Chaos: Ben Uri 100 Years in London, Inigo Rooms, East Wing, Somerset House (2015)
  • Lucien Pissarro in England: the Eragny Press, 1895–1914, Ashmolean Museum (2011)
  • Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group, Tate Britain (2008)
  • Homeless & Hidden 1: World Class Collection Homeless & Hidden, London, Ben Uri Gallery (2009)
  • Director's Choice: Highlights from the Ben Uri Permanent Collection Selected by Richard Aronowitz-Mercer, Director and Senior Curator, Ben Uri Gallery (2003)
  • Camille Pissarro & His Descendants: A Tradition of Printmaking, Stern Pissarro Gallery (2003)
  • Four Generations of the Pissarro Family, Portland Gallery (1993)
  • Exhibition of Selected Works from the Permanent Collection Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture, Ben Uri Gallery (1979)
  • Lucien Pissarro, 1863–1944: a Centenary Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Graphic Work, Arts Council Gallery (1963)
  • Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions (5th Collection) Friends of the Art Museums of Israel, Ben Uri Gallery (1955)
  • Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851–1951, Ben Uri Gallery (1951)
  • Famous Jewish Artists of the Past: Israels, Liebermann, Modigliani, The Pissarros, Soutine, Ben Uri Gallery (1949)
  • Part II of the Memorial Exhibition: Wood-engravings, Drawings, and Books for the Eragny Press, Leicester Galleries (1947)
  • Memorial Exhibition of Paintings and Water-colours by Lucien Pissarro, 1863–1944, Leicester Galleries (1946)
  • Exhibition of Paintings by A. A. Wolmark (Konstam Collection) Dobrinsky – Paris and Selected Works from the Ben Uri Art Collection, Ben Uri Gallery (1945)
  • Annual Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery (1937), (1936), (1935)
  • Paintings & Drawings by Lucien Pissarro, Manchester City Art Gallery (1935)
  • Lucien Pissarro, The Art Gallery (1935)
  • Exhibition of Works by Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery (1934)
  • Lucien Pissarro, Jackson Gallery, Police (1928)
  • Lucien Pissarro, Hampstead Art Gallery (1920)
  • Lucien Pissarro, Carfax Gallery (1913)
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Ben Uri collection

Lucien Pissarro in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Lucien Pissarro]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Lucien Pissarro] in the Ben Uri Library